I am confused by the two methods in Android. It seems that both methods tell you what kind of event it is, i.e., whether it is a down or up event.
When will I use which?
public void onTouchEvent(MotionEvent e)
Don't quote the documentation please, because I read it, and I don't see any parameter I can supply to either of the methods to get something different.
public final int getAction ()
and
public final int getActionMasked()
Yes, they both return the action (up/down etc.), but getAction() may return the action with pointer information, in which case the events may be a little different. getActionMasked() will always return "simple" actions with the pointer information "masked out" (get it?). You would then call getPointerIndex() on the same event to get the index of the pointer. Note that you will most commonly see this on multi-touch devices with multiple points of contact (pointers). The pointer index is essentially a way of matching events to contact points so you can tell them apart.