Android SimpleCursorAdapter

In case you work with a content provider or directly with the database you can use the SimpleCursorAdapter to define the data for your ListView. The following will demonstrates how to access the Contacts ContentProvider.

Create a new Android project called "de.vogella.android.listactivity.cursor" with the activity called MyListActivity. ChangeMyListActivity to the following.

package de.vogella.android.listactivity.cursor;

import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.provider.ContactsContract;
import android.widget.ListAdapter;
import android.widget.SimpleCursorAdapter;

public class MyListActivity extends ListActivity {
  

/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Cursor mCursor = getContacts();
    startManagingCursor(mCursor);
    // Now create a new list adapter bound to the cursor.
    // SimpleListAdapter is designed for binding to a Cursor.
    ListAdapter adapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(this, // Context.
        android.R.layout.two_line_list_item, // Specify the row template
                            // to use (here, two
                            // columns bound to the
                            // two retrieved cursor
                            // rows).
        mCursor, // Pass in the cursor to bind to.
        // Array of cursor columns to bind to.
        new String[] { ContactsContract.Contacts._ID,
            ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME },
        // Parallel array of which template objects to bind to those
        // columns.
        new int[] { android.R.id.text1, android.R.id.text2 });

    // Bind to our new adapter.
    setListAdapter(adapter);
  }

  private Cursor getContacts() {
    // Run query
    Uri uri = ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI;
    String[] projection = new String[] { ContactsContract.Contacts._ID,
        ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME };
    String selection = ContactsContract.Contacts.IN_VISIBLE_GROUP + " = '"
        + ("1") + "'";
    String[] selectionArgs = null;
    String sortOrder = ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME
        + " COLLATE LOCALIZED ASC";

    return managedQuery(uri, projection, selection, selectionArgs,
        sortOrder);
  }

} 

Make sure you give your application the permission to read the contacts. (Uses Permissions "android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" in AndroidManifest.xml)