How does ListView work internally in Android SDK?

ListView in Android SDK is a virtual view which displays a vertically scrollable collection of items. It is built on top of RecyclerView, providing a way to present large data sets efficiently. Internally, it uses an Adapter to bind data to the views. The ListView itself doesn't hold any data; instead, it relies on the adapter to get the data for it. The ListView recycles views that are no longer visible to optimize performance.

When a ListView is created, it requires an Adapter which translates the data into views. The Adapter manages the creation and binding of views based on the data provided. Each visible item in a ListView corresponds to a row, and the ListView can display a large number of items with minimal resource usage by recycling the views.

    // Example of a simple ListView implementation in XML and Java
    // XML layout for ListView
    

    // Java code to set up ListView
    public class MyActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
        @Override
        protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
            
            ListView myListView = findViewById(R.id.my_list_view);
            ArrayAdapter adapter = new ArrayAdapter<>(this, 
                android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, myData);
            myListView.setAdapter(adapter);
        }
    }