AutoCompleteTextView

In this video we will learn, how to use AutoCompleteTextView, which is a subclass of EditText and can show auto-complete suggestions when the user types something into the text input field.
We populate our suggestions popup with an ArrayAdapter to which we pass a string array. We will also change the comletionThreshold to change the number of characters the user has to type in to start getting suggestions. To customize it further we will also set a completionHint, change the popupBackground color and pass our very own layout for the dropdown list.

AutoCompleteTextView documentation:
developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/AutoCompleteTextView.html

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activity_main.xmlMainActivity.javastrings.xmlcustom_list_item.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="16dp"
    tools:context="com.codinginflow.autocompletetextviewexample.MainActivity">

    <AutoCompleteTextView
        android:id="@+id/actv"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:completionHint="Select a country"
        android:completionThreshold="1"
        android:dropDownAnchor="@id/text_view_countries"
        android:hint="Select a country"
        android:popupBackground="@color/colorAccent" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_view_countries"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingBottom="16dp"
        android:text="Countries"
        android:textSize="20sp" />

</LinearLayout>
package com.codinginflow.autocompletetextviewexample;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private static final String[] COUNTRIES = new String[]{
            "Afghanistan", "Albania", "Algeria", "Andorra", "Angola"
    };

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        String[] countries = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.countries);

        AutoCompleteTextView editText = findViewById(R.id.actv);
        ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,
                R.layout.custom_list_item, R.id.text_view_list_item, countries);
        editText.setAdapter(adapter);
        //editText.setThreshold(1);

        //get the input like for a normal EditText
        //String input = editText.getText().toString();
    }
}
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">AutoCompleteTextView Example</string>

    <string-array name="countries">
        <item>Afghanistan</item>
        <item>Albania</item>
        <item>Algeria</item>
        <item>Andorra</item>
        <item>Angola</item>
    </string-array>
</resources>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_view_list_item"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:padding="10dp"
        android:textColor="@color/colorPrimaryDark"
        android:textSize="16sp"
        android:textStyle="bold" />

    <View
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="1dp"
        android:background="@color/colorPrimary" />

</LinearLayout>