Android: Custom Adapter with custom spinner drop down xml layout giving error
===

I have a spinner with a custom adapter that I used to set the height of the first element in the spinner drop down to zero. I do this to have a default message in my spinner (first element) without the user being able to click it, since it's not visible. 


    package org.digitalhealthagency.elaj.util;
    
    import java.util.ArrayList;
    
    import org.digitalhealthagency.elaj.gui.R;
    
    import android.content.Context;
    import android.view.LayoutInflater;
    import android.view.View;
    import android.view.ViewGroup;
    import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
    import android.widget.SpinnerAdapter;
    import android.widget.TextView;
    
    public class CustomAdapter extends ArrayAdapter implements SpinnerAdapter{
    	
    	Context context;
    	int textViewResourceId;
        ArrayList arrayList;
    	
        public CustomAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId,  ArrayList arrayList) {
    		super(context, textViewResourceId, arrayList);
    		
    		this.context = context;
    		this.textViewResourceId = textViewResourceId;
    	    this.arrayList = arrayList;
    	
    	}
    
    	@Override
    	 public View getDropDownView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent){
    	   if (convertView == null)
    	   {
    	     LayoutInflater vi = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    	     //convertView = vi.inflate(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item, null);
    	     convertView = vi.inflate(R.layout.spinner_item, null);
    	   }
    
    	   TextView textView = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(android.R.id.text1);
    	   textView.setText(arrayList.get(position).toString());//after changing from ArrayList<String> to ArrayList<Object>
    	   
    	   if (position  == 0) { 
              textView.setHeight(0);
          }
          else{
          	textView.setHeight(100);
          }
    
    	   return convertView;
    	 }
    
    
    
    }

In the `getDropDownView` I am trying to inflate with spinner_item.xml instead of `android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item`. My spinner_item looks as follows,

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
        
      <CheckedTextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
        android:drawableLeft="?android:attr/listChoiceIndicatorSingle"
        android:gravity="right|center_vertical"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
        android:paddingRight="10dp"
        android:ellipsize="marquee" /> 

And in my activity code, I use the adapter as follows,


			CustomAdapter adapter = new CustomAdapter(this, R.layout.spinner, subSpecialities);
			adapter.setDropDownViewResource(R.layout.spinner_item);
			mSubSpecialtySpinner.setAdapter(adapter);

I get the following error in my log cat,


    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): java.lang.NullPointerException
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at org.digitalhealthagency.elaj.util.CustomAdapter.getDropDownView(CustomAdapter.java:40)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.Spinner$DropDownAdapter.getDropDownView(Spinner.java:569)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.Spinner$DropDownAdapter.getView(Spinner.java:565)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.AbsListView.obtainView(AbsListView.java:2033)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.ListView.measureHeightOfChildren(ListView.java:1244)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.ListView.onMeasure(ListView.java:1155)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.View.measure(View.java:12723)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:4698)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1369)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:660)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:553)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.View.measure(View.java:12723)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:4698)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1369)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:660)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:553)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.View.measure(View.java:12723)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:4698)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:293)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.View.measure(View.java:12723)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:4698)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:293)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.View.measure(View.java:12723)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:4698)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:293)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.onMeasure(PhoneWindow.java:2092)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.View.measure(View.java:12723)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performTraversals(ViewRootImpl.java:1064)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.view.ViewRootImpl.handleMessage(ViewRootImpl.java:2442)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4424)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
    07-10 10:49:34.103: E/AndroidRuntime(518): 	at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)


Could anyone please help me?
