SeekBars

In Android, SeekBar is an extension of ProgressBar that adds a draggable thumb, a user can touch the thumb and drag left or right to set the value for current progress. 

SeekBar is one of the very useful user interface element in Android that allows the selection of integer values using a natural user interface. An example of SeekBar is your device’s brightness control and volume control.

Important Note: Attribute of a SeekBar are same as ProgressBar and the only difference is user determine the progress by moving a slider (thumb) in SeekBar. To add a SeekBar to a layout (XML) file, you can use the <SeekBar> element.

In the below example of  seekbar in Android we display a simple seekbar by using its different attributes as discussed earlier in this post. We also perform seekbar changed listener event which is used to get the changes in the progress of a seek bar. After getting changes, the changed value of progress is displayed by using a Toast. Below is the download code, final output and step by step tutorial: 

Step 1: Create a new project and name it SeekBarExample

Step 2: Open res -> layout -> activity_main.xml (or) main.xml and add following code:

In this step we open an xml file and add the code for displaying a seekbar by using its different attributes like max, default progress and few more.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

    android:layout_width="match_parent"

    android:layout_height="match_parent"

    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <SeekBar

        android:id="@+id/simpleSeekBar"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:max="200"

        android:progress="60"

        />

</RelativeLayout>

Step 3: Open src -> package -> MainActivity.java

In this step we open MainActivity and add the code to initiate the seekbar and then perform seekbar changed listener event for getting the changes in the progress of the seekbar. By using this event listener we set get the current value of a seekbar and when a user stop the tracking touch, the value of progress is displayed by using a Toast.

package example.gb.seekbarexample;

import ...

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    Button submitButton;

    SeekBar simpleSeekBar;

    @Override

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        // initiate  views

        simpleSeekBar=(SeekBar)findViewById(R.id.simpleSeekBar);

        // perform seek bar change listener event used for getting the progress value

        simpleSeekBar.setOnSeekBarChangeListener(new SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener() {

            int progressChangedValue = 0;

            public void onProgressChanged(SeekBar seekBar, int progress, boolean fromUser) {

                progressChangedValue = progress;

            }

            public void onStartTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) {

                // TODO Auto-generated method stub

            }

            public void onStopTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) {

                Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Seek bar progress is :" + progressChangedValue,

                        Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

            }

        });

    }

}