Selecting one Checkbox out of multiple checkboxes & getting user selected Checkbox

Question

I have 16 checkboxes in an activity out of which user has to select any 1 out of 8 checkboxes.
So, ultimately user will be selecting 2 checkboxes out of 16 of them.

Update:The checkboxes are already there in the xml layout file. So, I do have access to their ID's

Till now, I was thinking to implement a simple onCheckedChange listener and in a switch case block select any 1 checkbox out of 8 checkboxes and deselect the rest 7 of them. But this approach is extremely painful.

Also, when I would need to extract which of them is selected then it would be a complete mess.

So, what is the simplest yet flexible way I can do both of these things? Suggestions are welcome
Thanks

Answer 1

You can keep only one CheckBox checked at a time(similar to a RadioGroup) by grouping them in an array(for easy access and handling) and also setting a OnClickListener to each one to set the status:

CheckBox[] chkArray = new CheckBox[8];
chkArray[0] = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.cb1R1);
chkArray[0].setOnClickListener(mListener);
chkArray[1] = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.cb2R1); // what id do you have?
chkArray[1].setOnClickListener(mListener);
// so on for the rest of the 8 CheckBoxes

private OnClickListener mListener = new OnClickListener() { 

     @Override
     public void onClick(View v) {
        final int checkedId = v.getId();
        for (int i = 0; i < chkArray.length; i++) {
            final CheckBox current = chkArray[i];
            if (current.getId() == checkedId) {
                 current.setChecked(true);
            } else {
                 current.setChecked(false);
            }
       }    
    }
};