Android Button with Examples

In android, Button is a user interface control that is used to perform an action whenever the user clicks or tap on it.

 

Generally, Buttons in android will contain a text or an icon or both and perform an action when the user touches it.

 

Following is the pictorial representation of using Buttons in android applications.

 

Android Buttons with Example

 

In android, we have a different type of buttons available to use based on our requirements, those are ImageButton, ToggleButton, RadioButton.

 

In android, we can create a Button control in two ways either in the XML layout file or create it in the Activity file programmatically.

Create Button in XML Layout File

Following is the sample way to define Button control in the XML layout file in the android application.

 

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
   
android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <
Button
       
android:id="@+id/addBtn"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:text="Add" />
</
LinearLayout>

If you observe above code snippet, here we defined Button control in xml layout file.

Create Button Control in Activity File

In android, we can create Button control programmatically in an activity file based on our requirements. 

 

Following is the example of creating Button control dynamically in the activity file.

 

LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.l_layout);
Button btn =
new Button(this);
btn.setText(
"Test");
layout.addView(btn);

Android Handle Button Click Events

Generally, whenever the user clicks on a Button, the Button object will receives an on-click event.

 

In android, we can define a button click event in two ways either in the XML layout file or create it in the Activity file programmatically.

Define Button Click Event in XML Layout File

We can define click event handler for button by adding android:onClick attribute to the <Button> element in our XML layout file. 

 

The value of android:onClick attribute must be the name of the method which we need to call in response to a click event and the Activity file which hosting XML layout must implement the corresponding method.

 

Following is the example of defining a button click event using android:onClick attribute in an XML layout file.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
   
android:layout_height="match_parent">
        <
Button
       
android:id="@+id/addBtn"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:text="Add"
       
android:onClick="addOperation"/>
</
LinearLayout>

In Activity that hosts our XML layout file, we need to implement click event method like as shown below

 

/** Called when the user touches the button */
public void addOperation(View view) {
   
// Do something in response to the button click
}

Define Button Click Event in Activity File

In android, we can define the button click event programmatically in the Activity file rather than XML layout file.

 

To define button click programmatically, create View.OnClickListener object and assign it to the button by calling setOnClickListener(View.OnClickListener) like as shown below.

 

Button btnAdd = (Button)findViewById(R.id.addBtn);
btnAdd.setOnClickListener(
new View.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {

// Do something in response to button click
}
});
}

This is how we can handle button click events in android applications based on our requirements.

Android Button Control Attributes

Following are the some of commonly used attributes related to Button control in android applications.

 

AttributeDescription
android:id It is used to uniquely identify the control
android:gravity It is used to specify how to align the text like left, right, center, top, etc.
android:text It is used to set the text.
android:textColor It is used to change the color of text.
android:textSize It is used to specify the size of the text.
android:textStyle It is used to change the style (bold, italic, bolditalic) of text.
android:background It is used to set the background color for button control.
android:padding It is used to set the padding from left, right, top and bottom.
android:drawableBottom It’s drawable to be drawn to the below of text.
android:drawableRight It’s drawable to be drawn to the right of text.
android:drawableLeft It’s drawable to be drawn to the left of the text.

Android Button Control Example

Following is the example of defining a one Button and two EditText controls in LinearLayout to get the data of EditText controls when click on Button in android application.

 

Create a new android application using android studio and give names as ButtonExample. In case if you are not aware of creating an app in android studio check this article Android Hello World App.

 

Now open an activity_main.xml file from \res\layout path and write the code like as shown below

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
   
android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <
TextView
       
android:id="@+id/fstTxt"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
       
android:layout_marginTop="150dp"
        
android:text="First Number" />
    <
EditText
       
android:id="@+id/firstNum"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
       
android:ems="10" />
    <
TextView
       
android:id="@+id/secTxt"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:text="Second Number"
       
android:layout_marginLeft="100dp" />
    <
EditText
       
android:id="@+id/secondNum"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
       
android:ems="10" />
    <
Button
       
android:id="@+id/addBtn"
       
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       
android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
       
android:text="Add" />
</
LinearLayout>

If you observe above code we created one Button, two TextView controls and two EditText controls in XML Layout file. 

 

Once we are done with the creation of layout with required control, we need to load the XML layout resource from our activity onCreate() callback method, for that open main activity file MainActivity.java from \java\com.tutlane.buttonexample path and write the code like as shown below.

MainActivity.java

package com.tutlane.buttonexample;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
   
@Override
   
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.
activity_main);
       
final EditText firstNum = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.firstNum);
       
final EditText secNum = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.secondNum);
        Button btnAdd = (Button)findViewById(R.id.
addBtn);
        btnAdd.setOnClickListener(
new View.OnClickListener() {
            
@Override
           
public void onClick(View v) {
               
if(firstNum.getText().toString().isEmpty() || secNum.getText().toString().isEmpty())
                {
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
"Please fill all the fields", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
               
else {
                   
int num1 = Integer.parseInt(firstNum.getText().toString());
                   
int num2 = Integer.parseInt(secNum.getText().toString());
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
"SUM = " + (num1 + num2), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
            }
        });
    }
}

If you observe above code we are calling our layout using setContentView method in the form of R.layout.layout_file_name in our activity file. Here our xml file name is activity_main.xml so we used file name activity_main and we are getting the values from two EditText controls on Button click and performing an addition operation.

 

Generally, during the launch of our activity, onCreate() callback method will be called by the android framework to get the required layout for an activity.

Output of Android Button Example

When we run above example using android virtual device (AVD) we will get a result like as shown below.

 

Android Buttons Example Result

 

This is how we can use Button control in android applications to perform required operations on button tap or click based on our requirements.