getActionBar() returns null

Question

I\'m having an odd problem. I am making an app with targetsdk 13.

In my main activity\'s onCreate method i call getActionBar() to setup my actionbar. T

Answer 1

Use getSupportActionBar() instead of getActionBar()

Answer 2

If you are using the support library

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

use getSupportActionBar() instead of getActionBar()

* Update:

The class ActionBarActivity now is deprecated:

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;

I recommend to use:

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity

Answer 3

1. if you are using android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity

   public class HomeActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

Then you should be using android.support.v7.app.ActionBar

  ActionBar ab = getSupportActionBar();

2. If you are using android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity

   public class HomeActivity extends FragmentActivity {

then you should be using android.app.ActionBar

    ActionBar ab = getActionBar();

3. If you are using android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity

   public class HomeActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

you should be using android.support.v7.app.ActionBar

   ActionBar ab = getSupportActionBar();

Answer 4

This answer is late but might be helpful to anyone who arrives from Google: You might well need to declare

<item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>

in your styles.xml. It seems false can be the default. You also need to be on API 11 or higher.

More details can be found in the documentation here. Specifically, quote:

Tip: If you have a custom activity theme in which you'd like to remove the action bar, set the android:windowActionBar style property to false. However, if you remove the action bar using a theme, then the window will not allow the action bar at all, so you cannot add it later—calling getActionBar() will return null.

Answer 5

I solve it by this changes:

1. change in minifest android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light" >
2. add to class extends ActionBarActivity
3. add import to class import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity

Answer 6

To add to the other answers:

Make sure you call setActionBar() or setSupportActionBar() in your onCreate() method before calling the getActionBar():

Define some Toolbar in your activity.xml, then in the onCreate():

Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.my_toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
// Now you can use the get methods:
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);