How to set both lines of a ListView using simple_list_item_2?

This questions ranks high with Google but I consider the given answer to be way too complicated. As pointed out in other answers, the desired functionality can be achieved using ArrayAdapter with a very easy trick.

You can override the getView method of the ArrayAdapter:

ArrayAdapter adapter = new ArrayAdapter(context, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_2, android.R.id.text1, list) {
  @Override
  public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
    View view = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
    TextView text1 = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1);
    TextView text2 = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.text2);

    text1.setText(persons.get(position).getName());
    text2.setText(persons.get(position).getAge());
    return view;
  }
};

If you didn’t notice: the trick is to supply android.R.id.text1 as (principally unneccessary) parameter, otherwise the call to super will cause an exception.

Also, this solution does not make use of TwoLineListItem, which was deprecated in API 17.