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Android Build a Simple Android App Improving Our Code Simple Refactoring: Using a New Class

Hmm FunFacts Stopped Working Error

Hi everyone,

I have come across an error that I have no idea how to fix as I am getting no errors from Android Studio. I will admit I am using the latest version of Android Studio (2.3) and not the same version used in the project as I had a lot of issues installing it and was pretty much forced to use the latest version.

When I run the project with the emulator I can an error that says: "Fun Facts has Stopped" with a button to open the app again. I do this and get the same error and then I am presented with another error that says "Fun Facts keeps stopping" with a button that says Close app. Obviously this closes the app.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me as I would have no idea where to look. Please see below, I have included the code that I am using:

FunFactsActivity.java

package com.stucowley.funfacts;

import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.RelativeLayout;
import android.widget.TextView;

import java.util.Random;

public class FunFactsActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private FactBook mFactBook = new FactBook();

    // Declare our view variables
    private TextView mFactTextView;
    private Button mShowFactButton;
    private RelativeLayout mRelativeLayout;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_fun_facts);

        // Assign the Views from the layout file to the corresponding variables
        mFactTextView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.factTextView);
        mShowFactButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.showFactButton);
        mRelativeLayout = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.relativeLayout);

        View.OnClickListener listener = new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                String fact = mFactBook.getFact();

                // Update the screen with our dynamic fact
                mFactTextView.setText(fact);
                mRelativeLayout.setBackgroundColor(Color.RED);
            }
        };
        mShowFactButton.setOnClickListener(listener);

    }
}

FactBook.java

package com.stucowley.funfacts;
import java.util.Random;

public class FactBook {
    // Fields (Member Variables) - Properties about the object
    private String[] mFacts = {
            "Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning.",
            "Ostriches can run faster than horses.",
            "Olympic gold medals are actually made mostly of silver.",
            "You are born with 300 bones; by the time you are an adult you will have 206.",
            "It takes about 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth.",
            "Some bamboo plants can grow almost a meter in just one day.",
            "The state of Florida is bigger than England.",
            "Some penguins can leap 2-3 meters out of the water.",
            "On average, it takes 66 days to form a new habit.",
            "Mammoths still walked the earth when the Great Pyramid was being built."
    };


    // Methods - Actions the object can take
    public String getFact() {

        String fact;

        // Randomly select a fact
        Random randomGenerator = new Random();
        int randomNumber = randomGenerator.nextInt(mFacts.length);

        fact = mFacts[randomNumber];

        return fact;
    }
}

And for good measure I will also include the activity_fun_facts.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="50dp"
    android:paddingLeft="50dp"
    android:paddingRight="50dp"
    android:paddingTop="50dp"
    android:id="@+id/relativeLayout"
    android:background="#51b46d"
    tools:context="com.stucowley.funfacts.FunFactsActivity">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Did you know?"
        android:textColor="#80ffffff"
        android:textSize="24sp"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.062"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.03"
        tools:text="Did you know?"
        android:id="@+id/textView"/>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/factTextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="186dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        android:text="Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning."
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textSize="24sp"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        tools:layout_constraintLeft_creator="1"
        tools:layout_constraintRight_creator="1"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        tools:layout_constraintTop_creator="1"
        tools:layout_constraintBottom_creator="1"/>

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/showFactButton"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="8dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="8dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        android:background="@android:color/white"
        android:text="Show Another Fun Fact"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        tools:layout_constraintBottom_creator="1"
        tools:layout_constraintLeft_creator="1"
        tools:layout_constraintRight_creator="1" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

I've also just discovered that I can see the logs from the emulator so I'll attach that too. I really want to get to the bottom of this, not just for myself but for others who may come across this in future.

03-30 17:35:36.625 4695-4695/? E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
                                                 Process: com.stucowley.funfacts, PID: 4695
                                                 java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.stucowley.funfacts/com.stucowley.funfacts.FunFactsActivity}: java.lang.ClassCastException: android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout cannot be cast to android.widget.RelativeLayout
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2665)
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2726)
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap12(ActivityThread.java)
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1477)
                                                     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
                                                     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:154)
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6119)
                                                     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
                                                     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:886)
                                                     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:776)
                                                  Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout cannot be cast to android.widget.RelativeLayout
                                                     at com.stucowley.funfacts.FunFactsActivity.onCreate(FunFactsActivity.java:30)
                                                     at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:6679)
                                                     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1118)
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2618)
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2726) 
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap12(ActivityThread.java) 
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1477) 
                                                     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102) 
                                                     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:154) 
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6119) 
                                                     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) 
                                                     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:886) 
                                                     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:776)

I will continue to see if I can figure this out but I'm at the stage where I need some help. No doubt this will be a user error.

Many thanks

Stu :)

3 Answers

Krahr Chaudhury
PLUS
Krahr Chaudhury
Courses Plus Student 139 Points

Read the errors:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.stucowley.funfacts/com.stucowley.funfacts.FunFactsActivity}: java.lang.ClassCastException: android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout cannot be cast to android.widget.RelativeLayout
                                                     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2665)
... blah blah blah
...                                                   
  Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout cannot be cast to android.widget.RelativeLayout
                                                     at com.stucowley.funfacts.FunFactsActivity.onCreate(FunFactsActivity.java:30)
                                                     at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:6679)

ClassCastException is caused when there's a type mismatch and you are trying to cast one object to an incompatible object type. In this instance, you are trying to cast something defined as a ConstraintLayout as RelativeLayout (I'm not an Android expert, but I'm guessing those are incompatible).

In activity_fun_facts.xml, the layout that has ID: relativeLayout is in fact defined as android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout.

Try changing that to android.widget.RelativeLayout (although I think just RelativeLayout is fine).

Thank you so much Koha! All I needed to do was change the ConstraintLayout to RelativeLayout. I also needed to re-size and re-align the factTextView

Okay so the problem is that in your activity xml file you define your layout as a constraint layout, however in your fun facts activity you are defining a relative layout and trying to assign it to your constraint layout. Hence the error message - "Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout cannot be cast to android.widget.RelativeLayout" Either change the field in your activity to a Constraint Layout, or do the opposite in your xml and change to a relative layout.

Jerome Heaven
Jerome Heaven
8,641 Points

Thanks Koha, You saved me from hours of troubleshooting.