Android Pickers(Date and Time Pickers)

In Android, you can use “android.widget.DatePicker” class to render a date picker component to select day, month and year in a pre-defined user interface and you can use “android.widget.TimePicker” class to render a time picker component to select hour and minute in a pre-defined user interface.

Android provides controls for the user to pick a time or pick a date as ready-to-use dialogs. Each picker provides controls for selecting each part of the time (hour, minute, AM/PM) or date (month, day, year). Using these pickers helps ensure that your users can pick a time or date that is valid, formatted correctly, and adjusted to the user's locale.

Google recommend that you use DialogFragment to host each time or date picker. The DialogFragment manages the dialog lifecycle for you and allows you to display the pickers in different layout configurations, such as in a basic dialog on handsets or as an embedded part of the layout on large screens.

Although DialogFragment was first added to the platform in Android 3.0 (API level 11), if your app supports versions of Android older than 3.0—even as low as Android 1.6—you can use the DialogFragment class that's available in the support library for backward compatibility.


Creating a Date Picker

To display a DatePickerDialog using DialogFragment, you need to define a fragment class that extends DialogFragment and return a DatePickerDialog from the fragment's onCreateDialog() method.

Note: If your app supports versions of Android older than 3.0, be sure you've set up your Android project with the support library as described in Setting Up a Project to Use a Library.

Extending DialogFragment for a date picker

To define a DialogFragment for a DatePickerDialog, you must:

• Define the onCreateDialog() method to return an instance of DatePickerDialog
• Implement the DatePickerDialog.OnDateSetListener interface to receive a callback when the user sets the date.

Here's an example:

package com.learnsimply.datetimepickerexample;

import java.util.Calendar;

import android.app.DatePickerDialog;

import android.app.Dialog;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.support.v4.app.DialogFragment;

import android.widget.DatePicker;

public class DatePickerFragment extends DialogFragment implements DatePickerDialog.OnDateSetListener{

@Override

public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

// Use the current date as the default date in the picker

final Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();

int year = c.get(Calendar.YEAR);

int month = c.get(Calendar.MONTH);

int day = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);

// Create a new instance of DatePickerDialog and return it

return new DatePickerDialog(getActivity(), this, year, month, day);

}

public void onDateSet(DatePicker view, int year, int month, int day) {

// Do something with the date chosen by the user

}

}

Now all you need is an event that adds an instance of this fragment to your activity.

Showing the date picker

Once you've defined a DialogFragment like the one shown above, you can display the date picker by creating an instance of the DialogFragment and calling show().

For example, here's a button that, when clicked, calls a method to show the dialog:

<Button

android:id="@+id/btnChangeDate"

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Change Date"

android:onClick="showDatePickerDialog" />

When the user clicks this button, the system calls the following method:

public void showDatePickerDialog(View v) {

DialogFragment newFragment = new DatePickerFragment();

newFragment.show(getSupportFragmentManager(), "datePicker");

  }

Creating a Time Picker

To display a TimePickerDialog using DialogFragment, you need to define a fragment class that extends DialogFragment and return a TimePickerDialog from the fragment's onCreateDialog() method.

Note: If your app supports versions of Android older than 3.0, be sure you've set up your Android project with the support library as described in Setting Up a Project to Use a Library.

Extending DialogFragment for a time picker

To define a DialogFragment for a TimePickerDialog, you must:

• Define the onCreateDialog() method to return an instance of TimePickerDialog
• Implement the TimePickerDialog.OnTimeSetListener interface to receive a callback when the user sets the time.

Here's an example:

package com.learnsimply.datetimepickerexample;

import java.util.Calendar;

import android.app.Dialog;

import android.app.TimePickerDialog;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.support.v4.app.DialogFragment;

import android.text.format.DateFormat;

import android.widget.TextView;

import android.widget.TimePicker;

public class TimePickerFragment extends DialogFragment implements TimePickerDialog.OnTimeSetListener{

TextView txtTime;

public TimePickerFragment(TextView txtTime) {

super();

this.txtTime = txtTime;

}

@Override

public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

// Use the current time as the default values for the picker

final Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();

int hour = c.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);

int minute = c.get(Calendar.MINUTE);

// Create a new instance of TimePickerDialog and return it

return new TimePickerDialog(getActivity(), this, hour, minute,

DateFormat.is24HourFormat(getActivity()));

}

public void onTimeSet(TimePicker view, int hourOfDay, int minute) {

// Do something with the time chosen by the user

}

}

Now all you need is an event that adds an instance of this fragment to your activity.

Showing the time picker

Once you've defined a DialogFragment like the one shown above, you can display the time picker by creating an instance of the DialogFragment and calling show().

For example, here's a button that, when clicked, calls a method to show the dialog:

<Button

android:id="@+id/btnChangeTime"

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Change Time"

android:onClick="showTimePickerDialog" />

When the user clicks this button, the system calls the following method:

public void showTimePickerDialog(View v) {

DialogFragment newFragment = new TimePickerFragment(txtDisplayTime);

newFragment.show(getSupportFragmentManager(), "timePicker");

}

Run the application

Note: In this sample i use android.support.v4 and FragmentActivity  because DialogFragment was first added to the platform in Android 3.0 (API level 11), if your app supports versions of Android older than 3.0—even as low as Android 1.6—you can use the DialogFragment class that's available in the support library for backward compatibility.

Download Source Code DateTimePicker.zip