Android: Add and remove view dynamically

In this post I will show you how to add and remove a view dynamically at run-time.
This will be explained in a very simple activity in which when you will click the Add button, a new View will be added in the main layout(screen visible to you), and when you will click the Remove button, the newly added view will be removed from the main layout.


1. First of all make a layout class for the view which you want to inflate at run time. Here I'm naming it as row.xml and add the following code to it:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/remove"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:text="Remove"/>
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/remove"/>
</RelativeLayout>


2. Now in the MainActivity.java class just add the below code snippet:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

 EditText textIn;
 Button buttonAdd;
 LinearLayout container;

 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  textIn = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.textin);
  buttonAdd = (Button)findViewById(R.id.add);
  container = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.container);
  
  buttonAdd.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){

   @Override
   public void onClick(View arg0) {
// code to inflate the view to be added at run time (row.xml)    
LayoutInflater layoutInflater = 
      (LayoutInflater) getBaseContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    final View addView = layoutInflater.inflate(R.layout.row, null);
    TextView textOut = (TextView)addView.findViewById(R.id.textout);
    textOut.setText(textIn.getText().toString());
    Button buttonRemove = (Button)addView.findViewById(R.id.remove);
    buttonRemove.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){

     @Override
     public void onClick(View v) {
      ((LinearLayout)addView.getParent()).removeView(addView);
     }});
    
    container.addView(addView);
   }});
  
 }
}

3. The layout file for MainActivity.java class named activity_main.xml:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/hello_world" />
    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        <Button
            android:id="@+id/add"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
            android:text="Add"/>
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/textin"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
            android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/add"/>
    </RelativeLayout>
    <LinearLayout 
        android:id="@+id/container"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical">
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

That's all. Compile and run the app and after pressing the Add button you can see that a new view is added below to the Add button.


Share and comment if any issue.