Spinner - onItemLongClick never executed

Question

I have this code

spinner.setOnItemLongClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemLongClickListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onItemLongClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
                if (parent.getItemAtPosition(position).equals("Choose an article")){
                }else {
                    String item = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();
                    Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(),"long click: " +item, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
                return false;
            }
        });

When I debug the code, on long click item event does nothing. The code inside onItemLongClick() is never executed. How can I fix it?

Answer 1

Spinner in Android might not support the setOnItemLongClickListener, due to its UI nature - it is essentially a dialog or dropdown menu. The dropdown menu will close after a short click, so a long click listener is not applicable here, hence why your long click listener is not triggered.

If you want to add additional interaction to the spinner, you could use the normal setOnItemSelectedListener instead.
(Examples here, and "Android - Text is Pushed to the Left in a Spinner")
You would then have to implement your own time logic if you want to simulate a long click event.

But, since the onTouch method is not a part of the OnItemSelectedListener interface, we will need a different approach to simulate a long press on the Spinner. As mentioned, it does not natively support long clicks: one approach would be to create a custom Spinner class where you can manage touch events yourself. A very basic implementation would be:

public class LongClickSpinner extends androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatSpinner {

    private static final long LONG_PRESS_TIME = 500; // Time in milliseconds
    private long pressStartTime;

    public LongClickSpinner(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public LongClickSpinner(Context context, int mode) {
        super(context, mode);
    }

    public LongClickSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
        switch (event.getAction()) {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
                pressStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
                break;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                long pressDuration = System.currentTimeMillis() - pressStartTime;
                if (pressDuration >= LONG_PRESS_TIME) {
                    // Do your long click action here
                    Toast.makeText(getContext(), "Long click!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    return true;
                }
                break;
        }
        return super.onTouchEvent(event);
    }
}

You can use this LongClickSpinner in your XML layouts like a normal Spinner. When the user touches the spinner for longer than LONG_PRESS_TIME milliseconds, your "long click" action will execute.

That solution is still a workaround and might not fit all use cases. Spinner is not intended to handle long press events, and its behavior with this custom implementation might not be perfect.

---

If you need a different interaction paradigm for the selection of items, you might want to consider using another UI component that does support long clicks, such as a ListView or RecyclerView.

With ListView or RecyclerView, you can have a list of items that support both normal clicks (for selection of the item) and long clicks (for showing additional options for example). The long click implementation would then look like this:

listView.setOnItemLongClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemLongClickListener() {
    @Override
    public boolean onItemLongClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
        String item = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();
        Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(), "long click: " + item, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        return true;  // Return true to show that the event has been consumed.
    }
});

The difference between using a ListView or RecyclerView and a Spinner is that the ListView/RecyclerView would always be visible on your layout, while a Spinner would only display its items once it's tapped.

If you want the spinner-like behavior while having the setOnItemLongClickListener functionality, one option would be to create a custom dialog that contains a ListView or RecyclerView. This way, you could emulate the spinner behavior with the benefits of long click listener support.