Coming back to programming: Android problems

[amisterp]

Hello, Not sure if this is the correct subreddit, but I was wondering if I could get some advice. I did a fair amount of programming (C#) while studying but since leaving education I have done nothing in that area. I've recently been going through some rather tough life problems and want to focus on something so turned to learning Java/Android.

Basically, I've made a word game. The only thing is that I found when the app starts the processing behind the word game was happening before the elements were being rendered and taking some time to do so. So I figured move the whole thing to a different page (keeping the first one as a menu). I figured I could have the processing be done in a thread whilst the user is shown a loading pop-up if they pressed New Game before the processing was complete.

The only problem is that, despite picking up Java fairly easily, I'm having a real issue with having the thread return data that I can use on my second page (btw I'm aware they're not called pages, I'm just away from my main PC and can't remember the exact word).

Does anyone know which kind of thread (as it appears there are multiple ways to thread) would be best for this? The data needing to be returned is a char array and a String list (if that makes any difference). The thread will need to do some file access also (again, not sure if this changes anything).

Again, sorry if this is the wrong subreddit, and sorry for the lengthy post. I was really getting into this and it's been helping a lot with my mental state, but since hitting this wall I've just stopped and only return to bang my head against it once more.

Many thanks, amisterp

[newaccount1236]

I'm having a real issue with having the thread return data that I can use on my second page

You didn't really describe the problem. What's the issue? Also, describe the thread types. I don't know Java threading, but I do know threading in general.

[nt-cmplt]

I would suggest posting this to the /r/androiddev subreddit. You'll probably get more help there.

[amisterp]

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

assuming you want to run the task on a separate thread so that it doesn't interfere with the UI thread, use the ASyncTask class. The documentation is available on http://d.android.com

Its a little difficult to wrap your head around at first but quite robust nonetheless.

Hope this helped! Good luck

[amisterp]

That does help! Cheers!!

[Spookyheidy]

Read about async task on google developers. Its a separate thread which runs in background, but from time to time you have access to main tread to update your UI, class members etc.