Unable to refresh ListView with SimpleAdapter

I am trying to add a new entry to my listview and refresh it with the old entry still showing in the listview. Previously I was using ArrayAdapter which I was able to refresh after adding a new entry by using

 adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

But I am unable to use the code above with SimpleAdapter. Any suggestion? I have tried a couple of solutions but nothing has worked so far.

Below is the code I am using which is not adding an entry:

void beta3 (String X, String Y){
    //listview in the main activity
    ListView POST = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.listView);
    //list = new ArrayList<String>();
    String data = bar.getText().toString();
    String two= data.replace("X", "");
    ArrayList<HashMap<String,String>> list = new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();

    HashMap<String,String> event = new HashMap<String, String>();
    event.put(Config.TAG_one, X);
    event.put(Config.TAG_two, two);
    event.put(Config.TAG_three, Y);
    list.add(event);
    ListAdapter adapter = new SimpleAdapter(this, list, R.layout.list,
            new String[]{Config.TAG_one, Config.TAG_two, Config.TAG_three},
            new int[]{R.id.one, R.id.two, R.id.three});        
    POST.setAdapter(adapter);
}

Solution

If your beta3 method really is your function to add a new entry to your ListView: it will set a new adapter with a new list every time you call it. So this will always result in a ListView containing one entry. After exiting the beta3 method the reference to the list is gone.

You have to reuse the list instance variable. Put ArrayList<HashMap<String,String>> list in class/activity scope and initialize it once (e.g. in onCreate()).

Another problem is that you use a ListAdapter variable as reference to the SimpleAdapter instance. ListAdapter is an interface which doesn't provide a notifyDataSetChanged method. You should use a SimpleAdapter variable instead.

Here is an example:

public class MyActivity {

    ArrayList<HashMap<String,String>> list;
    SimpleAdapter adapter;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        ...
        ListView POST = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.listView);
        list = new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();
        adapter = new SimpleAdapter(this, list, R.layout.list,
            new String[]{Config.TAG_one, Config.TAG_two, Config.TAG_three},
            new int[]{R.id.one, R.id.two, R.id.three});        
        POST.setAdapter(adapter);
    }


    void beta3 (String X, String Y){
        String two = ""; // adapt this to your needs
        ...
        HashMap<String,String> event = new HashMap<String, String>();
        event.put(Config.TAG_one, X);
        event.put(Config.TAG_two, two);
        event.put(Config.TAG_three, Y);
        list.add(event);
        adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
    }

}