Create Menu In Android

Introduction

 

In this article I explain how to create a menu in Android. Menus are a very important user interface entity in Android that provides actions for a specific view such as shown in the following application.

 

In this application I will show how to code a menu in Android and how it works.

 

Step 1

 

First of all create a new Android application project as shown below:

 

 

Step 2

 

Now open the XML file as "res/layout/activity_main.xml" and update it as in the following code:

<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="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="200dp"
        android:layout_height="50dp"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_marginTop="170dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:textColor="#778866"
        android:background="#020202"
        android:text="@string/menu"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
</RelativeLayout>

Step 3

 

In this step create a new XML file named "menu.xml" using the following code:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item
        android:id="@+id/menu_settings"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        android:showAsAction="never"
        android:title="@string/menu_settings"/>
      <item
          android:id="@+id/option"
          android:icon="@drawable/option_icon"
          android:title="Option"/>
      <item
          android:id="@+id/delete"
          android:icon="@drawable/delete_icon"
          android:title="Delete"/>
      <item
          android:id="@+id/back"
          android:icon="@drawable/back_icon"
          android:title="Back"/>
</menu>

Step 4

 

Now open the "MainAcivity.java" file and update it with your logic.

package com.example.menucreation;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuInflater;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.Toast;
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }
   // Initiating Menu XML file (menu.xml)
    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
    {
        MenuInflater menuInflater = getMenuInflater();
        menuInflater.inflate(R.layout.menu, menu);
        return true;
    }
    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
    {
        switch (item.getItemId())
        {
        case R.id.menu_settings:
            Toast.makeText(this, "menu settings", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;
        case R.id.option:
            Toast.makeText(this, "Option is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;
        case R.id.delete:
            Toast.makeText(this, " deleted ", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        case R.id.back:
            Toast.makeText(this, "you are exit", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
    }
}

Step 5

 

Open the "strings.xml" file and update it as given below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">MenuCreation</string>
    <string name="hello_world">Hello world!</string>
    <string name="menu_settings">Settings</string>
    <string name="option"></string>
    <string name="delete"></string>
    <string name="back"></string>
    <string name="menu">"Welcome in Menu "</string>
</resources>

Step 6

 

Output

 

In the output you will see in the outer Linear Layout I defined a vertical text view, two edit texts, one button and one inner Linear Layout with two horizontal buttons inside it.

 

 

Selected option: