Create Menus in Android

1. Create a new project File ⇒ New ⇒ Android Project and give activity name as   AndroidMenusActivity.

2. Now create an XML file under res/layout folder and name it as menu.xml.

Open menu.xml file and type following code. In the following code we are creating a single menu with 6 menu items. Each menu item has an icon and title for display the label under menu icon. Also we have id for each menu item to identify uniquely.


» menu.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <!-- Single menu item
         Set id, icon and Title for each menu item
    -->
    <item android:id="@+id/menu_bookmark"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_bookmark"
          android:title="Bookmark" />

    <item android:id="@+id/menu_save"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_save"
          android:title="Save" />

    <item android:id="@+id/menu_search"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_search"
          android:title="Search" />

    <item android:id="@+id/menu_share"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_share"
          android:title="Share" />

    <item android:id="@+id/menu_delete"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_delete"
          android:title="Delete" />

    <item android:id="@+id/menu_preferences"
          android:icon="@drawable/icon_preferences"
          android:title="Preferences" />
</menu>







4. Now open your main Activity class file (AndroidMenusActivity.java) and type following code. In the following code each menu item is identified by its ID in switch case statement.


» AndroidMenusActivity.java
package com.androidhive.androidmenus;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuInflater;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class AndroidMenusActivity extends Activity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }
   
    // Initiating Menu XML file (menu.xml)
    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
    {
        MenuInflater menuInflater = getMenuInflater();
        menuInflater.inflate(R.layout.menu, menu);
        return true;
    }
   
 
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
    {
       
        switch (item.getItemId())
        {
        case R.id.menu_bookmark:
            // Single menu item is selected do something
            // Ex: launching new activity/screen or show alert message
            Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Bookmark is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        case R.id.menu_save:
            Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Save is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        case R.id.menu_search:
            Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Search is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        case R.id.menu_share:
            Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Share is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        case R.id.menu_delete:
            Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Delete is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        case R.id.menu_preferences:
            Toast.makeText(AndroidMenusActivity.this, "Preferences is Selected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return true;

        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
    }  

}