private void refreshStockData(){
    final ArrayList<Stock> localStocks = 
          new ArrayList<Stock>(stocks.size());
    for (Stock stock : stocks){
        localStocks.add(new Stock(stock, stock.getId()));
    }
    final Handler handler = new Handler(){
        @Override
        public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
            for (int i=0;i<stocks.size();i++){
                stocks.set(i, localStocks.get(i));
            }
            refresh();
        }
    };
    Runnable task = new Runnable(){
        public void run() {
            try {
                ArrayList<Stock> newStocks = 
                    fetchStockData(localStocks.toArray(
                                  new Stock[localStocks.size()]));
                for (int i=0;i<localStocks.size();i++){
                    Stock ns = newStocks.get(i);
                    Stock ls = localStocks.get(i);
                    ls.setName(ns.getName());
                    ls.setCurrentPrice(ns.getCurrentPrice());
                }
                handler.sendEmptyMessage(RESULT_OK);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("StockPortfolioViewStocks", 
                            "Exception getting stock data", e);
            } 
        }
    };
    Thread dataThread = new Thread(task);
    dataThread.start();
}

private void refreshStockData() {
    new AsyncTask<Stock, Void, ArrayList<Stock>>(){
        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(ArrayList<Stock> result) {
            ViewStocks.this.stocks = result;
            refresh();
        }

        @Override
        protected ArrayList<Stock> doInBackground(Stock... stocks){
            try {
                return fetchStockData(stocks);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("StockPortfolioViewStocks", "Exception getting stock data", e);
            }
            return null;
        }
    }.execute(stocks.toArray(new Stock[stocks.size()]));
}

Life-cycle helpers

these methods let you conditionally perform work depending on a context’s life-cycle state.

• isLaunching() is true if and only if the context just went through onCreate() for the first time (but was not restored, i.e. onRestoreInstanceState() was not called)
• isRestoring() is true if your context is recovering after being killed by Android
• isResuming() is true if your context is “soft-resuming” as I call it, i.e. there was no call to onCreate() before going through onResume()
• isApplicationBroughtToBackground(): sometimes it’s necessary to distinguish between your activity being paused by another activity of your own application, or by an entirely different application. This method yields true if another application’s activity is hiding yours.