Easy and reusable ItemDecoration

Static headers can easily be added with an ItemDecoration and without any further changes.

// add the decoration. done. HeaderDecoration headerDecoration = new HeaderDecoration(/* init */); recyclerView.addItemDecoration(headerDecoration); 

The decoration is also reusable since there is no need to modify the adapter or the RecyclerView at all.

The sample code provided below will require a view to add to the top which can just be inflated like everything else. It can look like this:

Why static?

If you just have to display text and images this solution is for you—there is no possibility for user interaction like buttons or view pagers, since it will just be drawn to top of your list.

Empty list handling

If there is no view to decorate, the decoration will not be drawn. You will still have to handle an empty list yourself. (One possible workaround would be to add a dummy item to the adapter.)

The code

You can find the full source code here on GitHub including a Builder to help with the initialization of the decorator, or just use the code below and supply your own values to the constructor.

Please be sure to set a correct layout_height for your view. e.g. match_parent might not work properly.

public class HeaderDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration { private final View mView; private final boolean mHorizontal; private final float mParallax; private final float mShadowSize; private final int mColumns; private final Paint mShadowPaint; public HeaderDecoration(View view, boolean scrollsHorizontally, float parallax, float shadowSize, int columns) { mView = view; mHorizontal = scrollsHorizontally; mParallax = parallax; mShadowSize = shadowSize; mColumns = columns; if (mShadowSize > 0) { mShadowPaint = new Paint(); mShadowPaint.setShader(mHorizontal ? new LinearGradient(mShadowSize, 0, 0, 0, new int[]{Color.argb(55, 0, 0, 0), Color.argb(55, 0, 0, 0), Color.argb(3, 0, 0, 0)}, new float[]{0f, .5f, 1f}, Shader.TileMode.CLAMP) : new LinearGradient(0, mShadowSize, 0, 0, new int[]{Color.argb(55, 0, 0, 0), Color.argb(55, 0, 0, 0), Color.argb(3, 0, 0, 0)}, new float[]{0f, .5f, 1f}, Shader.TileMode.CLAMP)); } else { mShadowPaint = null; } } @Override public void onDraw(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) { super.onDraw(c, parent, state); // layout basically just gets drawn on the reserved space on top of the first view mView.layout(parent.getLeft(), 0, parent.getRight(), mView.getMeasuredHeight()); for (int i = 0; i < parent.getChildCount(); i++) { View view = parent.getChildAt(i); if (parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) == 0) { c.save(); if (mHorizontal) { c.clipRect(parent.getLeft(), parent.getTop(), view.getLeft(), parent.getBottom()); final int width = mView.getMeasuredWidth(); final float left = (view.getLeft() - width) * mParallax; c.translate(left, 0); mView.draw(c); if (mShadowSize > 0) { c.translate(view.getLeft() - left - mShadowSize, 0); c.drawRect(parent.getLeft(), parent.getTop(), mShadowSize, parent.getBottom(), mShadowPaint); } } else { c.clipRect(parent.getLeft(), parent.getTop(), parent.getRight(), view.getTop()); final int height = mView.getMeasuredHeight(); final float top = (view.getTop() - height) * mParallax; c.translate(0, top); mView.draw(c); if (mShadowSize > 0) { c.translate(0, view.getTop() - top - mShadowSize); c.drawRect(parent.getLeft(), parent.getTop(), parent.getRight(), mShadowSize, mShadowPaint); } } c.restore(); break; } } } @Override public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) { if (parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) < mColumns) { if (mHorizontal) { if (mView.getMeasuredWidth() <= 0) { mView.measure(View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(parent.getMeasuredWidth(), View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST), View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(parent.getMeasuredHeight(), View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST)); } outRect.set(mView.getMeasuredWidth(), 0, 0, 0); } else { if (mView.getMeasuredHeight() <= 0) { mView.measure(View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(parent.getMeasuredWidth(), View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST), View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(parent.getMeasuredHeight(), View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST)); } outRect.set(0, mView.getMeasuredHeight(), 0, 0); } } else { outRect.setEmpty(); } } } 

Please note: The GitHub project is my personal playground. It is not thorougly tested, which is why there is no library yet.

What does it do?

An ItemDecoration is additional drawing to an item of a list. In this case, a decoration is drawn to the top of the first item.

The view gets measured and laid out, then it is drawn to the top of the first item. If a parallax effect is added it will also be clipped to the correct bounds.

Going to show you to make header with items in a Recycler view.

Step 1- Add dependency into your gradle file.

compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:23.2.0' // CardView compile 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:23.2.0' 

Cardview is used for decoration purpose.

Step2- Make three xml files. One for main activity.Second for Header layout.Third for list item layout.

activity_main.xml

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:id="@+id/my_recycler_view" android:scrollbars="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" /> 

header.xml

<android.support.v7.widget.CardView 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="wrap_content" app:cardElevation="2dp"> <TextView android:id="@+id/txtHeader" android:gravity="center" android:textColor="#000000" android:textSize="@dimen/abc_text_size_large_material" android:background="#DCDCDC" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="50dp" /> </android.support.v7.widget.CardView> 

list.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:card_view="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"> <android.support.v7.widget.CardView android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" app:cardElevation="1dp"> <TextView android:id="@+id/txtName" android:text="abc" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> </android.support.v7.widget.CardView> </LinearLayout> 

Step 3- Create three bean classes.

Header.java

public class Header extends ListItem { private String header; public String getHeader() { return header; } public void setHeader(String header) { this.header = header; } } 

ContentItem.java

public class ContentItem extends ListItem { private String name; private String rollnumber; @Override public String getName() { return name; } @Override public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public String getRollnumber() { return rollnumber; } public void setRollnumber(String rollnumber) { this.rollnumber = rollnumber; } } 

ListItem.java

public class ListItem { private String name; public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } private int id; public int getId() { return id; } public void setId(int id) { this.id = id; } } 

Step 4- Create an adapter named MyRecyclerAdapter.java

public class MyRecyclerAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> { private static final int TYPE_HEADER = 0; private static final int TYPE_ITEM = 1; //Header header; List<ListItem> list; public MyRecyclerAdapter(List<ListItem> headerItems) { this.list = headerItems; } @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) { LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()); if (viewType == TYPE_HEADER) { View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.header, parent, false); return new VHHeader(v); } else { View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.list, parent, false); return new VHItem(v); } throw new IllegalArgumentException(); } @Override public void onBindViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { if (holder instanceof VHHeader) { // VHHeader VHheader = (VHHeader)holder; Header currentItem = (Header) list.get(position); VHHeader VHheader = (VHHeader)holder; VHheader.txtTitle.setText(currentItem.getHeader()); } else if (holder instanceof VHItem) ContentItem currentItem = (ContentItem) list.get(position); VHItem VHitem = (VHItem)holder; VHitem.txtName.setText(currentItem.getName()); } } @Override public int getItemViewType(int position) { if (isPositionHeader(position)) return TYPE_HEADER; return TYPE_ITEM; } private boolean isPositionHeader(int position) { return list.get(position) instanceof Header; } @Override public int getItemCount() { return list.size(); } class VHHeader extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder{ TextView txtTitle; public VHHeader(View itemView) { super(itemView); this.txtTitle = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.txtHeader); } } class VHItem extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder{ TextView txtName; public VHItem(View itemView) { super(itemView); this.txtName = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.txtName); } } } 

Step 5- In MainActivity add the following code:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity { RecyclerView recyclerView; List<List<ListItem>> arraylist; MyRecyclerAdapter adapter; @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); recyclerView = (RecyclerView)findViewById(R.id.my_recycler_view); LinearLayoutManager linearLayoutManager = new LinearLayoutManager(this); adapter = new MyRecyclerAdapter(getList()); recyclerView.setLayoutManager(linearLayoutManager); recyclerView.setAdapter(adapter); } private ArrayList<ListItem> getList() { ArrayList<ListItem> arrayList = new ArrayList<>(); for(int j = 0; j <= 4; j++) { Header header = new Header(); header.setHeader("header"+j); arrayList.add(header); for (int i = 0; i <= 3; i++) { ContentItem item = new ContentItem(); item.setRollnumber(i + ""); item.setName("A" + i); arrayList.add(item); } } return arrayList; } } 

The function getList() is dynamically generating the data for the headers and for list items.

Feel free to use my library, available here.

It let's you create header View for any RecyclerView that uses LinearLayoutManager or GridLayoutManager with just a simple method call.

If you want the header to be easily reused across multiple lists, take a look at the version 1.2.0 of recyclerview library. It introduces ConcatAdapter class which concatenates multiple adapters into a single one. So you can create a header adapter and easily combine it with any other adapter, like:

myRecyclerView.adapter = ConcatAdapter(headerAdapter, listAdapter) 

The announcement article contains a sample how to display a loading progress in header and footer using ConcatAdapter.

For the moment when I post this answer the version 1.2.0 of the library is in alpha stage, so the api might change. You can check the status here.

You can just place your header and your RecyclerView in a NestedScrollView:

<android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" > <LinearLayout android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:orientation="vertical" > <include layout="@layout/your_header"/> <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView android:id="@+id/list_recylclerview" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> </LinearLayout> </android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView> 

In order for scrolling to work correctly, you need to disable nested scrolling on your RecyclerView:

myRecyclerView.setNestedScrollingEnabled(false); 

You can achieve it using the library SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter, it has the concept of "Sections", where which Section has a Header, Footer and Content (list of items). In your case you might only need one Section but you can have many:

1) Create a custom Section class:

class MySection extends StatelessSection { List<String> myList = Arrays.asList(new String[] {"Item1", "Item2", "Item3" }); public MySection() { // call constructor with layout resources for this Section header, footer and items super(R.layout.section_header, R.layout.section_footer, R.layout.section_item); } @Override public int getContentItemsTotal() { return myList.size(); // number of items of this section } @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder getItemViewHolder(View view) { // return a custom instance of ViewHolder for the items of this section return new MyItemViewHolder(view); } @Override public void onBindItemViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { MyItemViewHolder itemHolder = (MyItemViewHolder) holder; // bind your view here itemHolder.tvItem.setText(myList.get(position)); } } 

2) Create a custom ViewHolder for the items:

class MyItemViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder { private final TextView tvItem; public MyItemViewHolder(View itemView) { super(itemView); tvItem = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.tvItem); } } 

3) Set up your ReclyclerView with the SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter

// Create an instance of SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter sectionAdapter = new SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter(); MySection mySection = new MySection(); // Add your Sections sectionAdapter.addSection(mySection); // Set up your RecyclerView with the SectionedRecyclerViewAdapter RecyclerView recyclerView = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.recyclerview); recyclerView.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(getContext())); recyclerView.setAdapter(sectionAdapter); 

I know it is an old question, but want to provide an answer anyways.

There is a ConcatAdapter (docs here) that solves the problem for you. All you have to do is to define your header view layout and create a dummy Adapter with a single item In Kotlin it takes literally a few lines

class HeaderAdapter(private val inflater: LayoutInflater) : RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>() { override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int) = object : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(inflater.inflate(yourViewLayoutId, parent, false)) {} override fun onBindViewHolder(viewHolder: RecyclerView.ViewHolder, position: Int) {} override fun getItemCount() = 1 } 

After that all you have to do is to add your header adapter and original adapter to the ConcatAdapter

recyclerView.adapter = ConcatAdapter(headerAdapter, adapter) 

See documentation for more details and advanced cases.

Based on this post, I created a subclass of RecyclerView.Adapter that supports an arbitrary number of headers and footers.

https://gist.github.com/mheras/0908873267def75dc746

Although it seems to be a solution, I also think this thing should be managed by the LayoutManager. Unfortunately, I need it now and I don't have time to implement a StaggeredGridLayoutManager from scratch (nor even extend from it).

I'm still testing it, but you can try it out if you want. Please let me know if you find any issues with it.

Native API doesn't have such "addHeader" feature, but has the concept of "addItem".

I was able to include this specific feature of headers and extends for footers as well in my FlexibleAdapter project. I called it Scrollable Headers and Footers.

Here how they work:

Scrollable Headers and Footers are special items that scroll along with all others, but they don't belongs to main items (business items) and they are always handled by the adapter beside the main items. Those items are persistently located at the first and last positions.

There's a lot to say about them, better to read the detailed wiki page.

Moreover the FlexibleAdapter allows you to create headers/sections, also you can have them sticky and tens of others features like expandable items, endless scroll, UI extensions etc... all in one library!

First - extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> public class MenuAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> { 

After - Override the method getItemViewTpe ***More Important

@Override public int getItemViewType(int position) { return position; } 

method onCreateViewHolder

@Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) { View view = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.menu_item, parent, false); View header = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.menu_header_item, parent, false); Log.d("onCreateViewHolder", String.valueOf(viewType)); if (viewType == 0) { return new MenuLeftHeaderViewHolder(header, onClickListener); } else { return new MenuLeftViewHolder(view, onClickListener); } } 

method onBindViewHolder

@Override public void onBindViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { if (position == 0) { MenuHeaderViewHolder menuHeaderViewHolder = (MenuHeaderViewHolder) holder; menuHeaderViewHolder.mTitle.setText(sMenuTitles[position]); menuHeaderViewHolder.mImage.setImageResource(sMenuImages[position]); } else { MenuViewHolder menuLeftViewHolder = (MenuLeftViewHolder) holder; menuViewHolder.mTitle.setText(sMenuTitles[position]); menuViewHolder.mImage.setImageResource(sMenuImages[position]); } } 

in finish implements the ViewHolders class static

public static class MenuViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder public static class MenuLeftHeaderViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder 

here some itemdecoration for recyclerview

public class HeaderItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration { private View customView; public HeaderItemDecoration(View view) { this.customView = view; } @Override public void onDraw(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) { super.onDraw(c, parent, state); customView.layout(parent.getLeft(), 0, parent.getRight(), customView.getMeasuredHeight()); for (int i = 0; i < parent.getChildCount(); i++) { View view = parent.getChildAt(i); if (parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) == 0) { c.save(); final int height = customView.getMeasuredHeight(); final int top = view.getTop() - height; c.translate(0, top); customView.draw(c); c.restore(); break; } } } @Override public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) { if (parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) == 0) { customView.measure(View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(parent.getMeasuredWidth(), View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST), View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(parent.getMeasuredHeight(), View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST)); outRect.set(0, customView.getMeasuredHeight(), 0, 0); } else { outRect.setEmpty(); } } } 

Maybe wrap header and recyclerview into a coordinatorlayout:

<android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout 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"> <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" app:elevation="0dp"> <View android:id="@+id/header" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" app:layout_scrollFlags="scroll" /> </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout> <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView android:id="@+id/list" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" app:layout_behavior="@string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior" /> 

HeaderView depends on the LayoutManager. None of the default LayoutManagers support this and probably wont. HeaderView in ListView creates a lot of complexity without any significant benefit.

I would suggest creating a base adapter class that adds items for Headers if provided. Don't forget to override notify* methods to offset them properly depending on whether header is present or not.

There is one more solution that covers all the use cases above: CompoundAdapter: https://github.com/negusoft/CompoundAdapter-android

You can create a AdapterGroup that holds your Adapter as it is, along with an adapter with a single item to represent the header. The code is easy and readable:

AdapterGroup adapterGroup = new AdapterGroup(); adapterGroup.addAdapter(SingleAdapter.create(R.layout.header)); adapterGroup.addAdapter(new CommentAdapter(...)); recyclerView.setAdapter(adapterGroup); 

AdapterGroup allows nesting too, so for a adapter with sections, you may create a AdapterGroup per section. Then put all the sections in a root AdapterGroup.

I made an implementation based on @hister's one for my personal purposes, but using inheritance.

I hide the implementation details mechanisms (like add 1 to itemCount, subtract 1 from position) in an abstract super class HeadingableRecycleAdapter, by implementing required methods from Adapter like onBindViewHolder, getItemViewType and getItemCount, making that methods final, and providing new methods with hidden logic to client:

• onAddViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position),
• onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent),
• itemCount()

Here are the HeadingableRecycleAdapter class and a client. I left the header layout a bit hard-coded because it fits my needs.

public abstract class HeadingableRecycleAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> { private static final int HEADER_VIEW_TYPE = 0; @LayoutRes private int headerLayoutResource; private String headerTitle; private Context context; public HeadingableRecycleAdapter(@LayoutRes int headerLayoutResourceId, String headerTitle, Context context) { this.headerLayoutResource = headerLayoutResourceId; this.headerTitle = headerTitle; this.context = context; } public Context context() { return context; } @Override public final RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) { if (viewType == HEADER_VIEW_TYPE) { return new HeaderViewHolder(LayoutInflater.from(context).inflate(headerLayoutResource, parent, false)); } return onCreateViewHolder(parent); } @Override public final void onBindViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { int viewType = getItemViewType(position); if (viewType == HEADER_VIEW_TYPE) { HeaderViewHolder vh = (HeaderViewHolder) holder; vh.bind(headerTitle); } else { onAddViewHolder(holder, position - 1); } } @Override public final int getItemViewType(int position) { return position == 0 ? 0 : 1; } @Override public final int getItemCount() { return itemCount() + 1; } public abstract int itemCount(); public abstract RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent); public abstract void onAddViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position); } @PerActivity public class IngredientsAdapter extends HeadingableRecycleAdapter { public static final String TITLE = "Ingredients"; private List<Ingredient> itemList; @Inject public IngredientsAdapter(Context context) { super(R.layout.layout_generic_recyclerview_cardified_header, TITLE, context); } public void setItemList(List<Ingredient> itemList) { this.itemList = itemList; } @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent) { return new ViewHolder(LayoutInflater.from(context()).inflate(R.layout.item_ingredient, parent, false)); } @Override public void onAddViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { ViewHolder vh = (ViewHolder) holder; vh.bind(itemList.get(position)); } @Override public int itemCount() { return itemList == null ? 0 : itemList.size(); } private String getQuantityFormated(double quantity, String measure) { if (quantity == (long) quantity) { return String.format(Locale.US, "%s %s", String.valueOf(quantity), measure); } else { return String.format(Locale.US, "%.1f %s", quantity, measure); } } class ViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder { @BindView(R.id.text_ingredient) TextView txtIngredient; ViewHolder(View itemView) { super(itemView); ButterKnife.bind(this, itemView); } void bind(Ingredient ingredient) { String ingredientText = ingredient.getIngredient(); txtIngredient.setText(String.format(Locale.US, "%s %s ", getQuantityFormated(ingredient.getQuantity(), ingredient.getMeasure()), Character.toUpperCase(ingredientText.charAt(0)) + ingredientText .substring(1))); } } } 

Probably http://alexzh.com/tutorials/multiple-row-layouts-using-recyclerview/ will help. It uses only RecyclerView and CardView. Here is an adapter:

public class DifferentRowAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> { private List<CityEvent> mList; public DifferentRowAdapter(List<CityEvent> list) { this.mList = list; } @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) { View view; switch (viewType) { case CITY_TYPE: view = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.item_city, parent, false); return new CityViewHolder(view); case EVENT_TYPE: view = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.item_event, parent, false); return new EventViewHolder(view); } return null; } @Override public void onBindViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { CityEvent object = mList.get(position); if (object != null) { switch (object.getType()) { case CITY_TYPE: ((CityViewHolder) holder).mTitle.setText(object.getName()); break; case EVENT_TYPE: ((EventViewHolder) holder).mTitle.setText(object.getName()); ((EventViewHolder) holder).mDescription.setText(object.getDescription()); break; } } } @Override public int getItemCount() { if (mList == null) return 0; return mList.size(); } @Override public int getItemViewType(int position) { if (mList != null) { CityEvent object = mList.get(position); if (object != null) { return object.getType(); } } return 0; } public static class CityViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder { private TextView mTitle; public CityViewHolder(View itemView) { super(itemView); mTitle = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.titleTextView); } } public static class EventViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder { private TextView mTitle; private TextView mDescription; public EventViewHolder(View itemView) { super(itemView); mTitle = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.titleTextView); mDescription = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.descriptionTextView); } } } 

And here's an entity:

public class CityEvent { public static final int CITY_TYPE = 0; public static final int EVENT_TYPE = 1; private String mName; private String mDescription; private int mType; public CityEvent(String name, String description, int type) { this.mName = name; this.mDescription = description; this.mType = type; } public String getName() { return mName; } public void setName(String name) { this.mName = name; } public String getDescription() { return mDescription; } public void setDescription(String description) { this.mDescription = description; } public int getType() { return mType; } public void setType(int type) { this.mType = type; } } 

you can create addHeaderView and use

adapter.addHeaderView(View).

This code build the addHeaderView for more then one header. the headers should have:

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

public class MyAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder> { private static final int TYPE_ITEM = -1; public class MyViewSHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder { public MyViewSHolder (View view) { super(view); } // put you code. for example: View mView; ... } public class ViewHeader extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder { public ViewHeader(View view) { super(view); } } private List<View> mHeaderViews = new ArrayList<>(); public void addHeaderView(View headerView) { mHeaderViews.add(headerView); } @Override public int getItemCount() { return ... + mHeaderViews.size(); } @Override public int getItemViewType(int position) { if (mHeaderViews.size() > position) { return position; } return TYPE_ITEM; } @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) { if (viewType != TYPE_ITEM) { //inflate your layout and pass it to view holder return new ViewHeader(mHeaderViews.get(viewType)); } ... } @Override public void onBindViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int basePosition1) { if (holder instanceof ViewHeader) { return; } int basePosition = basePosition1 - mHeaderViews.size(); ... } } 

It's been a few years, but just in case anyone is reading this later...

Using the above code, only the header layout is displayed as viewType is always 0.

The problem is in the constant declaration:

private static final int HEADER = 0; private static final int OTHER = 0; <== bug 

If you declare them both as zero, then you'll always get zero!

I have implemented the same approach proposed by EC84B4 answer, but I abstracted RecycleViewAdapter and make it easily resuable by means of interfaces.

So in order to use my approach you should add following base classes and interfaces to your project:

1) Interface that provides data for Adapter (collection of generic type T, and additional parameters (if needed) of generic type P)

public interface IRecycleViewListHolder<T,P>{ P getAdapterParameters(); T getItem(int position); int getSize(); } 

2) Factory for binding your items (header/item):

public interface IViewHolderBinderFactory<T,P> { void bindView(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position,IRecycleViewListHolder<T,P> dataHolder); } 

3) Factory for viewHolders (header/items):

public interface IViewHolderFactory { RecyclerView.ViewHolder provideInflatedViewHolder(int viewType, LayoutInflater layoutInflater,@NonNull ViewGroup parent); } 

4) Base class for Adapter with Header:

public class RecycleViewHeaderBased<T,P> extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>{ public final static int HEADER_TYPE = 1; public final static int ITEM_TYPE = 0; private final IRecycleViewListHolder<T, P> dataHolder; private final IViewHolderBinderFactory<T,P> binderFactory; private final IViewHolderFactory viewHolderFactory; public RecycleViewHeaderBased(IRecycleViewListHolder<T,P> dataHolder, IViewHolderBinderFactory<T,P> binderFactory, IViewHolderFactory viewHolderFactory) { this.dataHolder = dataHolder; this.binderFactory = binderFactory; this.viewHolderFactory = viewHolderFactory; } @NonNull @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(@NonNull ViewGroup parent, int viewType) { LayoutInflater layoutInflater = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()); return viewHolderFactory.provideInflatedViewHolder(viewType,layoutInflater,parent); } @Override public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) { binderFactory.bindView(holder, position,dataHolder); } @Override public int getItemViewType(int position) { if(position == 0) return HEADER_TYPE; return ITEM_TYPE; } @Override public int getItemCount() { return dataHolder.getSize()+1; } } 

Usage example:

1) IRecycleViewListHolder implementation:

public class AssetTaskListData implements IRecycleViewListHolder<Map.Entry<Integer, Integer>, GroupedRecord> { private List<Map.Entry<Integer, Integer>> assetCountList; private GroupedRecord record; public AssetTaskListData(Map<Integer, Integer> assetCountListSrc, GroupedRecord record) { this.assetCountList = new ArrayList<>(); for(Object entry: assetCountListSrc.entrySet().toArray()){ Map.Entry<Integer,Integer> entryTyped = (Map.Entry<Integer,Integer>)entry; assetCountList.add(entryTyped); } this.record = record; } @Override public GroupedRecord getAdapterParameters() { return record; } @Override public Map.Entry<Integer, Integer> getItem(int position) { return assetCountList.get(position-1); } @Override public int getSize() { return assetCountList.size(); } } 

2) IViewHolderBinderFactory implementation:

public class AssetTaskListBinderFactory implements IViewHolderBinderFactory<Map.Entry<Integer, Integer>, GroupedRecord> { @Override public void bindView(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position, IRecycleViewListHolder<Map.Entry<Integer, Integer>, GroupedRecord> dataHolder) { if (holder instanceof AssetItemViewHolder) { Integer assetId = dataHolder.getItem(position).getKey(); Integer assetCount = dataHolder.getItem(position).getValue(); ((AssetItemViewHolder) holder).bindItem(dataHolder.getAdapterParameters().getRecordId(), assetId, assetCount); } else { ((AssetHeaderViewHolder) holder).bindItem(dataHolder.getAdapterParameters()); } } } 

3) IViewHolderFactory implementation:

public class AssetTaskListViewHolderFactory implements IViewHolderFactory { private IPropertyTypeIconMapper iconMapper; private ITypeCaster caster; public AssetTaskListViewHolderFactory(IPropertyTypeIconMapper iconMapper, ITypeCaster caster) { this.iconMapper = iconMapper; this.caster = caster; } @Override public RecyclerView.ViewHolder provideInflatedViewHolder(int viewType, LayoutInflater layoutInflater, @NonNull ViewGroup parent) { if (viewType == RecycleViewHeaderBased.HEADER_TYPE) { AssetBasedHeaderItemBinding item = DataBindingUtil.inflate(layoutInflater, R.layout.asset_based_header_item, parent, false); return new AssetHeaderViewHolder(item.getRoot(), item, caster); } AssetBasedListItemBinding item = DataBindingUtil.inflate(layoutInflater, R.layout.asset_based_list_item, parent, false); return new AssetItemViewHolder(item.getRoot(), item, iconMapper, parent.getContext()); } } 

4) Deriving adapter

public class AssetHeaderTaskListAdapter extends RecycleViewHeaderBased<Map.Entry<Integer, Integer>, GroupedRecord> { public AssetHeaderTaskListAdapter(IRecycleViewListHolder<Map.Entry<Integer, Integer>, GroupedRecord> dataHolder, IViewHolderBinderFactory binderFactory, IViewHolderFactory viewHolderFactory) { super(dataHolder, binderFactory, viewHolderFactory); } } 

5) Instantiate adapter class:

private void setUpAdapter() { Map<Integer, Integer> objectTypesCountForGroupedTask = groupedTaskRepository.getObjectTypesCountForGroupedTask(this.groupedRecordId); AssetTaskListData assetTaskListData = new AssetTaskListData(objectTypesCountForGroupedTask, getGroupedRecord()); adapter = new AssetHeaderTaskListAdapter(assetTaskListData,new AssetTaskListBinderFactory(),new AssetTaskListViewHolderFactory(iconMapper,caster)); assetTaskListRecycler.setAdapter(adapter); } 

P.S.: AssetItemViewHolder, AssetBasedListItemBinding, etc. my application own structures that should be swapped by your own, for your own purposes.

This is my solution, which uses an abstract class that will extend your adapter

abstract class HeaderAdapter<T : RecyclerView.ViewHolder>(headerView: View) : RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>() { var headerView: View = headerView set(value) { notifyItemChanged(HEADER_POSITION) field = value } companion object { const val TYPE_HEADER = -1 const val HEADER_POSITION = 0 } abstract val itemCountWithoutHeader: Int abstract fun getViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): T abstract fun onBindItemViewHolder(holder: T, position: Int) open fun getItemsItemViewType(position: Int): Int { return super.getItemViewType(position) } final override fun getItemCount(): Int = itemCountWithoutHeader + 1 final override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): RecyclerView.ViewHolder { return if (viewType == TYPE_HEADER) HeaderHolder(headerView) else getViewHolder(parent, viewType) } final override fun getItemViewType(position: Int): Int { return if (position == HEADER_POSITION) TYPE_HEADER else getItemsItemViewType(position) } final override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: RecyclerView.ViewHolder, position: Int) { if (position != HEADER_POSITION) onBindItemViewHolder(holder as T, position-1) } class HeaderHolder(itemView: View) : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(itemView) }