Customize divider / separator in dropdown of an AutocompleteTextview

Question

I\'ve seen this question asked some other times on the site, but no one couldn\'t get any answer.

Is there any way to customize the appearance of the divider in the

Answer 1

The answer from Mark is normally the best solution. However different versions of the AppCompat library have different behavior, regarding how android:dropDownListViewStyle affects other menus, like the system overflow/options menu. For example, in AppCompat version 23.0.1, it will not affect this menu in the ActionBar/Toolbar; whereas version 23.2.1 it will affect it, as explained here.

If you want a style that is isolated to only affect the AutoCompleteTextView, it may not be possible. But an alternative way is to create the list divider image manually, as part of the layout of the dropdown list row:

res/layout/autocomplete_list_row.xml

res/drawable/divider.xml

Then use this layout in your adapter for the AutoCompleteTextView:

ArrayAdapter autoCompleteListAdapter = 
    new ArrayAdapter<>(context,
                       R.layout.autocomplete_list_row,
                       R.id.text, arrayList);

Similar approach using ConstraintLayout here.