Option Menu in Android With Example

Option menu in android is the primary menus of android. They can be used for things like settings, search, and edit items, etc.

The Options menu allows you to perform actions that have a global impact on the application. Option Menu is created by Overriding the onCreateOptionsMenu() function .

Handling Android Options Menu Clicks Event
The onOptionsItemSelected() event function in Android can be used to handle option menu item click events.

The following are some of the most commonly used options menu control properties in Android applications.

Attribute	Description
android:title	Used to set the item’s title
android:icon	Used to set the item’s icon from the drawable folder.
android:showAsAction	Used to specify how the item should appear as an action item in the app bar.

Preview: Option Menu

<–Option Menu Example

File:menu_main.xml

–> Create a New Resource file and Add the given below code to your file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

    <item
        android:id="@+id/item1"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_baseline_card_travel_24"
        android:title="Item 1"
        app:showAsAction="ifRoom" />
    <item
        android:id="@+id/item2"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_baseline_gps_fixed_24"
        android:title="Item 2"
        app:showAsAction="never" />
    <item
        android:id="@+id/item3"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_baseline_camera_alt_24"
        android:title="Item 3"
        app:showAsAction="never" >
        <menu>
            <item android:id="@+id/subitem1"
                android:title="Sub item 1"
                android:icon="@drawable/ic_baseline_camera_alt_24"/>
            <item android:id="@+id/subitem2"
                android:title="Sub item 2"
                android:icon="@drawable/ic_baseline_gps_fixed_24"/>
        </menu>
    </item>

</menu>

File: activity_main.xml

–>Add the given below code to your file activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:text="Developers Dome"
        android:textAlignment="center"
        android:textSize="30sp"
        android:textColor="@color/teal_200"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />


</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

File: MainActivity.kt

–>Add the given below code to your file MainActivity.kt

package com.example.option_menu

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import android.view.*
import android.widget.Toast

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    }

    override fun onCreateOptionsMenu(menu: Menu?): Boolean {
        menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu)
        return true
    }

    override fun onOptionsItemSelected(item: MenuItem): Boolean {
        return when (item.itemId) {
            R.id.item1 -> {
                Toast.makeText(applicationContext, "click on item 1", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
                true
            }
            R.id.item2 -> {
                Toast.makeText(applicationContext, "click on item 2", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
                true
            }
            R.id.item1 -> {
                Toast.makeText(applicationContext, "click on item 3", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
                true
            }
            R.id.subitem1 -> {
                Toast.makeText(applicationContext, "click on subitem 1", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
                true
            }
            R.id.subitem2 -> {
                Toast.makeText(applicationContext, "click on subitem 2", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
                true
            }

            else -> super.onOptionsItemSelected(item)
        }
    }
}

If you look at the code above, you’ll notice that we’ve overridden the activity’s onCreateOptionsMenu() method to construct an options menu and loaded a defined menu resource using MenuInflater.inflate ().
The Android Studio will often call the onCreate() callback method during the start of our activity to obtain the required layout for an activity.