Greetings!
We have recently published 100+ articles on android tutorials with kotlin and java. If you need, you may visit Android Tutorial for beginners page. You can also check Kotlin Tutorial for beginners. Also, if you are interested in content writing, you can mail us at tutorialwing@gmail.com.Hello Readers! In this post, we are going to learn how to create and use android spinner programmatically in kotlin file in any android application. We will also learn how to add spinner in linearLayout programmatically in an android application.
Output

Tutorialwing Android Dynamic Spinner Output
Getting Started
At first, we will create android project. Then, we will create and use spinner programmatically in kotlin file.
1. Creating New Project in Kotlin
Follow the steps below to create new project. Please ignore the steps if you have already created a new project.
Step | Description |
---|---|
1. | Open Android Studio. |
2. | Go to File => New => New Project. Write application name as DynamicSpinner. Then, check Include Kotlin Support and click next button. |
3. | Select minimum SDK you need. However, we have selected 17 as minimum SDK. Then, click next button |
4. | Then, select Empty Activity => click next => click finish. |
5. | At this point, You will get a newly created android project successfully. |
Now, we will modify xml and kotlin file to use spinner dynamically.
2. Modify Values Folder
Open res/values/strings.xml file. Then, add below code into it.
<resources> <string name="app_name">DynamicSpinner</string> <string name="selected_item">Selected item:</string> </resources>
No other values folders have been changed. So, we are not going to mention them here.
3. Modify Layout Folder
Open res/layout/activity_main.xml file. Then, add below code into it.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/rootContainer" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:background="@android:color/white" android:gravity="center" android:orientation="vertical"> </LinearLayout>
In activity_main.xml file, we have defined a linearLayout, with id rootContainer, that will act as container for the spinner widget created dynamically in the application. Now, we will create android spinner programmatically in kotlin file in the application.
4. Create Android Spinner Programmatically / Dynamically in Kotlin
Open app/src/main/java/com.tutorialwing.dynamicspinner/MainActivity.kt file. Then, add below code into it.
package com.tutorialwing.dynamicspinner import android.os.Bundle import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity import android.view.View import android.view.ViewGroup import android.widget.* class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() { override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) val linearLayout = findViewById<LinearLayout>(R.id.rootContainer) val spinner = Spinner(this) spinner.layoutParams = LinearLayout.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT) val personNames = arrayOf("Rahul", "Jack", "Rajeev", "Aryan", "Rashmi", "Jaspreet", "Akbar") val arrayAdapter = ArrayAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, personNames) spinner.adapter = arrayAdapter spinner.onItemSelectedListener = object : AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener { override fun onItemSelected(parent: AdapterView<*>, view: View, position: Int, id: Long) { Toast.makeText(this@MainActivity, getString(R.string.selected_item) + " " + personNames[position], Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show() } override fun onNothingSelected(parent: AdapterView<*>) { // Code to perform some action when nothing is selected } } // Add Spinner to LinearLayout linearLayout?.addView(spinner) } }
Here, we have created Spinner programmatically in kotlin file (In MainActivity.kt file). Then, we have created an adapter and set it to spinner. This adapter is responsible to display different options as list in the dropdown in spinner. At last, we have set a listener to display a toast message whenever any option is selected from the dropdown.
Since AndroidManifest.xml file is very important in any android application, we are also going through the code inside this file.
AndroidManifest.xml file
Code inside src/main/AndroidManifest.xml file is –
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest package="com.tutorialwing.dynamicspinner" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <application android:allowBackup="true" android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher" android:label="@string/app_name" android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round" android:supportsRtl="true" android:theme="@style/AppTheme"> <activity android:name=".MainActivity"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/> </intent-filter> </activity> </application> </manifest>
When we run the program, we will get output as shown above.
That’s end of our tutorial on Creating Android Spinner Programmatically in Kotlin.