How to add bulleted list to android application?

Question

I have googled my question but there is not working answer provided. How do add a bulleted list to my textview.

Answer 1

Inspired by the various answers here, I created a Utility class to make this an easy one liner. This will create a bulleted list with indentation for wrapped text. It has methods for combining strings, string resources and string array resources.

It will create a CharSequence which you can pass to a TextView. For example:

CharSequence bulletedList = BulletListUtil.makeBulletList("First line", "Second line", "Really long third line that will wrap and indent properly.");
textView.setText(bulletedList);

Hope it's helpful. Enjoy.

Note: This will use the system standard bullet, a small circle the same color as the text. If you want a custom bullet, consider subclassing BulletSpan and overriding its drawLeadingMargin() to draw the bullet you want. Take a look at the BulletSpan source for an idea how it works.

public class BulletTextUtil {

/**
 * Returns a CharSequence containing a bulleted and properly indented list.
 *
 * @param leadingMargin In pixels, the space between the left edge of the bullet and the left edge of the text.
 * @param context
 * @param stringArrayResId A resource id pointing to a string array. Each string will be a separate line/bullet-point.
 * @return
 */
public static CharSequence makeBulletListFromStringArrayResource(int leadingMargin, Context context, int stringArrayResId) {
    return makeBulletList(leadingMargin, context.getResources().getStringArray(stringArrayResId));
}

/**
 * Returns a CharSequence containing a bulleted and properly indented list.
 *
 * @param leadingMargin In pixels, the space between the left edge of the bullet and the left edge of the text.
 * @param context
 * @param linesResIds An array of string resource ids. Each string will be a separate line/bullet-point.
 * @return
 */
public static CharSequence makeBulletListFromStringResources(int leadingMargin, Context context, int... linesResIds) {
    int len = linesResIds.length;
    CharSequence[] cslines = new CharSequence[len];
    for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        cslines[i] = context.getString(linesResIds[i]);
    }
    return makeBulletList(leadingMargin, cslines);
}

/**
 * Returns a CharSequence containing a bulleted and properly indented list.
 *
 * @param leadingMargin In pixels, the space between the left edge of the bullet and the left edge of the text.
 * @param lines An array of CharSequences. Each CharSequences will be a separate line/bullet-point.
 * @return
 */
public static CharSequence makeBulletList(int leadingMargin, CharSequence... lines) {
    SpannableStringBuilder sb = new SpannableStringBuilder();
    for (int i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
        CharSequence line = lines[i] + (i < lines.length-1 ? "\n" : "");
        Spannable spannable = new SpannableString(line);
        spannable.setSpan(new BulletSpan(leadingMargin), 0, spannable.length(), Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
        sb.append(spannable);
    }
    return sb;
}

}