Android – How to properly highlight selected item on RecyclerView

I am trying to use a RecyclerView as a horizontal ListView. I am trying to figure out how to highlight the selected item. When I click on one of the items, it gets selected and it is highlighted properly but when I click on another one, the second one gets highlighted with the older one.

Here is my onClick function:

@Override
public void onClick(View view) {

    if(selectedListItem!=null){
        Log.d(TAG, "selectedListItem " + getPosition() + " " + item);
        selectedListItem.setBackgroundColor(Color.RED);
    }
    Log.d(TAG, "onClick " + getPosition() + " " + item);
    viewHolderListener.onIndexChanged(getPosition());
    selectedPosition = getPosition();
    view.setBackgroundColor(Color.CYAN); 
    selectedListItem = view;
}

Here is the onBindViewHolder:

@Override
public void onBindViewHolder(ViewHolder viewHolder, int position) {   
    viewHolder.setItem(fruitsData[position]);
    if(selectedPosition == position)
        viewHolder.itemView.setBackgroundColor(Color.CYAN);    
    else
        viewHolder.itemView.setBackgroundColor(Color.RED);

}

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <item android:drawable="@color/pressed_color" android:state_pressed="true"/> <item android:drawable="@color/selected_color" android:state_selected="true"/> <item android:drawable="@color/focused_color" android:state_focused="true"/> </selector>

Best Answer

This is much simple way to do it.

Have a private int selectedPos = RecyclerView.NO_POSITION; in the RecyclerView Adapter class, and under onBindViewHolder method try:

@Override
public void onBindViewHolder(ViewHolder viewHolder, int position) {   
    viewHolder.itemView.setSelected(selectedPos == position);

}

And in your OnClick event modify:

@Override
public void onClick(View view) {
     notifyItemChanged(selectedPos);
     selectedPos = getLayoutPosition();
     notifyItemChanged(selectedPos); 
}

Works like a charm for Navigtional Drawer and other RecyclerView Item Adapters.

Note: Be sure to use a background color in your layout using a selector like colabug clarified:

Otherwise setSelected(..) will do nothing, rendering this solution useless.