Android ListView setSelection() does not seem to work

Question

I have a ListActivity that implements onListItemClick() and calls a doSomething() function of the class. The latter contains l.s

Answer 1

For me it helped to set
ListView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE); or ListView.CHOICE_MODE_MULTIPLE
then
ListView.setSelection(position) or ListView.setItemChecked(position, true);
works fine

Answer 2

use requestFocusFromTouch() before calling setSelection() method

Answer 3

maybe you need to use function:

ListView.setItemChecked(int position, boolean checked);

Answer 4

Simply try this code

  listView.setAdapter(adapter);
  listView.setSelection(position);
  adapter.notifyDataSetChanged(); 

Answer 5

setSelection() does not necessarily have visual impact. The selection bar only appears if you use the D-pad/trackball to navigate the list. If you tap on the screen to click something, the selection bar appears briefly and vanishes.

Hence, setSelection() will only have a visual impact if the activity is not in touch mode (i.e., the last thing the user did was use the D-pad/trackball).

I am not 100% certain this explains your phenomenon given the description you provided, but I figured it is worth a shot...