ViewHolder Pattern - Caching View Efficiently

A – Yeah! It works!

Yo, we’ve got a list view to display something:

Sample ListView

This is what people like to write for list adapter:

	@Override
	public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

		View v = convertView;
		if(v == null) {
			LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(mContext);
			v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.layout_list_item, null);
		}

		TextView txtName = (TextView)v.findViewById(R.id.txtName);
		TextView txtMail = (TextView)v.findViewById(R.id.txtMail);

		Contact entry = mList.get(position);

		txtName.setText(entry.getName());
		txtMail.setText(entry.getMail());

		return v;
	}

That’s great because it works with no problem and the list displays contents nicely!!!

 

B – Dig It Out

Let’s see how it works..

+ First time loaded, oh right, it’s null!  Ok, to find our TextView controls, ‘findViewById()‘ is loaded. Great, we’ve got it!

+ Second time loaded,  it must be not null, but ‘findViewById()‘ is loaded. Well, just one time, it’s fine!

+ Next time loaded, it’s absolutely not null, eh, ‘findViewById()‘ is called by default. Eh oh..

+ ……whatever time

+ xxx th time…..something is calling ‘findViewById()‘…so stupid, damn it! But it’s still running fine … _ _!

 

C – Giving birth to a child: ViewHolder

You may see the problem, too. When the list is too big, containing lots of rows, then the calling of ‘findViewById()‘ everytime will impact slightly to your application performance, even though, it’s still working fine; however, it’s quite risky since it might be dead at some unexpected point.

This is one of most common problem, it is! Hence, from somewhere, the idea of ViewHolder pattern was created to improve this current situation.

	@Override
	public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
		View v = convertView;
		if(v == null) {
			LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(mContext);
			v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.layout_list_item, null);
			ViewHolder holder = new ViewHolder();
			holder.txtName = (TextView)v.findViewById(R.id.txtName);
			holder.txtMail = (TextView)v.findViewById(R.id.txtMail);
			v.setTag(holder);
		}

		Contact entry = mList.get(position);
		if(entry != null) {
			ViewHolder holder = (ViewHolder)v.getTag();
			holder.txtName.setText(entry.getName());
			holder.txtMail.setText(entry.getMail());
		}
		return v;

	}

	static class ViewHolder {
		TextView txtName;
		TextView txtMail;
	}

The ViewHolder object is static, once created, it will cache all things inside. Therefore, we can avoid calling ‘findViewById()‘ on resource everytime.

 

D – Note

- Something works doesn’t mean it’s the best. Even if it’s fine, it might contain some invisible problems.

- Use ViewHolder pattern whenever possible to cache data!

 

E – Final Words

- Just something I’ve learned and wanna share to everyone.

- Feel free to comment, suggest and request; I’m here to listen to everyone’s voice

- Free to share, free to take!

 

Cheers,

Pete Houston

About these ads