Android: AdapterView select item

I have an AdapterView filled with items

and I would like to select the item I click on, something like this:
is there a possible way I can do this?

This is how I build the adapter

adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(
                            context,
                            android.R.layout.simple_selectable_list_item,
                            QuestionActivity.OptionArrayList.get(position));
                    context.startActivity(i);

You can check this sample project I just made. I think the code speaks for itself but feel free to ask questions if You aren't sure about something. But basically I set OnItemClickListener to the ListView and I change the background to selected_back which is a shape in drawable folder. Also, I keep a reference to the last changed View so when user click on another View it will be easy to change its background again to normal_back.

MainActivity.java

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity
{
View lastChangedView = null;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
ArrayList<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();
arrayList.add("One");
arrayList.add("Two");
arrayList.add("Three");
final ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(
this,
R.layout.list_view_item,
arrayList);
ListView listView = findViewById(R.id.listView);
listView.setAdapter(adapter);
listView.setOnItemClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener()
{
@Override
public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id)
{
if (lastChangedView != null)
{
lastChangedView.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.normal_back);
}
lastChangedView = view;
Log.d("Main", "Item click at " + position);
view.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.selected_back);
}
});
}
}

acitivty_main.xml

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<ListView
android:id="@+id/listView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</FrameLayout>

list_view_item.xml (in layout folder)

<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:textSize="32sp"
android:background="@drawable/normal_back" />

normal_back.xml (in a drawable folder)

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:shape="rectangle">
<solid android:color="#FFFFFF" />
</shape>

selected_back.xml (in a drawable folder)

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:shape="rectangle" >
<stroke
android:width="2dp"
android:color="#0000FF" />
<solid android:color="#FFFFFF" />
</shape>

Result (after clicking on "Two"):

You need a custom adapter to achieve this. It will simply extend BaseAdater, and will have a custom view along with a boolean to keep info of which item was selected. You can follow Using a BaseAdapter with ListView guide.

CustomAdatpter class will be as follows -

public class MyAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
private Context context;
private ArrayList<String> arrayList;
//taking boolean to keep track of item selected
private boolean isItemSelected = false;
public MyAdapter(Context context, ArrayList<String> arrayList) {
this.context = context;
this.arrayList = arrayList;
}
@Override
public int getCount() {
return arrayList.size();
}
@Override
public Object getItem(int position) {
return arrayList.get(position); //returns list item at the specified position
}
@Override
public long getItemId(int position) {
return position;
}
@Override
public View getView(final int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
if (convertView == null) {
convertView = LayoutInflater.from(context).
inflate(R.layout.item, parent, false);
}
TextView textView = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.text_view);
textView.setText(arrayList.get(position));
//setting click listener on convertView which is each item view
convertView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
if (isItemSelected){
//item is selected, need to un select item, 
isItemSelected = false;
textView.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.unselected_bg);
}
else{
//item is not selected, need to select item
isItemSelected = true;
textView.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.selected_bg);
}
}
});
return convertView;
}
}

I am using R.drawable.unselected_bg and R.drawable.selected_bg which are nothing but drawable files as follows -

selected_bg.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<solid android:color="#5B5BC9"/>
<stroke android:color="#4CAF50" android:width="5dp"/>
</shape>

unselected_bg.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<solid android:color="#5B5BC9"/>
</shape>

In last item has following layout which was inflated in getView();

item.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:clickable="true"
android:focusable="true"
android:id="@+id/text_view"
android:background="@drawable/unselected_bg"
android:padding="16dp">
</TextView>

If you notice, I have given android:background="@drawable/unselected_bg" just to make item unselected on create.

Result will be as follows -

Happy Coding !