Android - CheckBox Control

---

---

A CheckBox is an on/off switch that can be toggled by the user. You should use check-boxes when presenting users with a group of selectable options that are not mutually exclusive.

CheckBox

CheckBox Attributes

Following are the important attributes related to CheckBox control. You can check Android official documentation for complete list of attributes and related methods which you can use to change these attributes are run time.

Inherited from android.widget.TextView Class −

Inherited from android.view.View Class −

Example

This example will take you through simple steps to show how to create your own Android application using Linear Layout and CheckBox.

Following is the content of the modified main activity file src/MainActivity.java. This file can include each of the fundamental lifecycle methods.

package com.example.myapplication;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.widget.Button;

import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;

import android.widget.CheckBox;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
   CheckBox ch1,ch2;
   Button b1,b2;

   @Override
   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
      
      ch1=(CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.checkBox1);
      ch2=(CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.checkBox2);
      
      b1=(Button)findViewById(R.id.button);
      b2=(Button)findViewById(R.id.button2);
      b2.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
         
         @Override
         public void onClick(View v) {
            finish();
         }
      });
      b1.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
         
         @Override
         public void onClick(View v) {
            StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
            result.append("Thanks : ").append(ch1.isChecked());
            result.append("\nThanks: ").append(ch2.isChecked());
            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, result.toString(), 
               Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
         }
      });
   }
}

Following will be the content of res/layout/activity_main.xml file −

<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"
   
   android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
   android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
   tools:context=".MainActivity">
   
   <TextView
      android:id="@+id/textView1"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Example of checkbox"
      android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:textSize="30dp" />
      
   <CheckBox
      android:id="@+id/checkBox1"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Do you like Tutorials Point"
      android:layout_above="@+id/button"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   <CheckBox
      android:id="@+id/checkBox2"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Do you like android "
      android:checked="false"
      android:layout_above="@+id/checkBox1"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/checkBox1"
      android:layout_alignStart="@+id/checkBox1" />
   
   <TextView
      android:id="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/checkBox1"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView1"
      android:layout_marginTop="39dp"
      android:text="Tutorials point"
      android:textColor="#ff87ff09"
      android:textSize="30dp"
      android:layout_alignRight="@+id/textView1"
      android:layout_alignEnd="@+id/textView1" />
      
   <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Ok"
      android:id="@+id/button"
      android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/checkBox1"
      android:layout_alignStart="@+id/checkBox1" />
      
   <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Cancel"
      android:id="@+id/button2"
      android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
      android:layout_alignRight="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_alignEnd="@+id/textView2" />
      
   <ImageButton
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/imageButton"
      android:src="@drawable/abc"
      android:layout_centerVertical="true"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
</RelativeLayout>

Following will be the content of res/values/strings.xml to define these new constants −

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
   <string name="app_name">MyApplication</string>	
</resources>

Following is the default content of AndroidManifest.xml −

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.myapplication" >
   
   <application
      android:allowBackup="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
      
      <activity
         android:name="com.example.myapplication.MainActivity"
         android:label="@string/app_name" >
      
         <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
         </intent-filter>
      
      </activity>
      
   </application>
</manifest>

Let's try to run your MyApplication application. I assume you had created your AVD while doing environment setup. To run the app from Android studio, open one of your project's activity files and click Run icon from the toolbar. Android studio installs the app on your AVD and starts it and if everything is fine with your setup and application, it will display following Emulator window −

User needs you check on either do you like android check box or do you like tutorials point check box. and press ok button, if does all process correctly, it gonna be shown toast message as Thanks. Or else do press on cancel button, if user presses cancel button it going to close the application

Exercise

I will recommend to try above example with different attributes of CheckBox in Layout XML file as well at programming time to have different look and feel of the CheckBox. Try to make it editable, change to font color, font family, width, textSize etc and see the result. You can also try above example with multiple CheckBox controls in one activity.