Populate Listview from JSON

Programmer Bruce is correct, there is no default way to do this. However, there is a very clean and simple way to get this accomplished. Here is the adapter I use to handle JSONArrays.

class JSONAdapter extends BaseAdapter implements ListAdapter {    private final Activity activity;    private final JSONArray jsonArray;    private JSONAdapter(Activity activity, JSONArray jsonArray) {        assert activity != null;        assert jsonArray != null;        this.jsonArray = jsonArray;        this.activity = activity;    }    @Override public int getCount() {        return jsonArray.length();    }    @Override public JSONObject getItem(int position) {        return jsonArray.optJSONObject(position);    }    @Override public long getItemId(int position) {        JSONObject jsonObject = getItem(position);        return jsonObject.optLong("id");    }    @Override public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {        if (convertView == null)            convertView = activity.getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.row, null);        JSONObject jsonObject = getItem(position);          return convertView;    }}

Android doesn't have a ready-made adapter to populate a ListView with a JSON array, like it does for populating a ListView with database records.

I recommend getting comfortable with populating a Java data structure of your choice with the JSON data, and getting comfortable with working with ListViews, populating them from different collections, with different custom rows.

Here's a simple example of populating a List from a JSON array, and then using the List to populate a ListView.

import java.util.ArrayList;import java.util.List;import org.json.JSONArray;import android.app.Activity;import android.os.Bundle;import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;import android.widget.ListView;public class Main extends Activity{  @Override  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)  {    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);    setContentView(R.layout.main);    try    {      String jsonInput = "[\"one\",\"two\",\"three\",\"four\",\"five\",\"six\",\"seven\",\"eight\",\"nine\",\"ten\"]";      JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray(jsonInput);      int length = jsonArray.length();      List<String> listContents = new ArrayList<String>(length);      for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)      {        listContents.add(jsonArray.getString(i));      }      ListView myListView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.my_list);      myListView.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, listContents));    }    catch (Exception e)    {      // this is just an example    }  }}

dbaugh has a good answer, but this post explains how to use it for the rest of us who don't know where to go from there.