android - How to hide the whole RecyclerView? -

i trying hide recyclerview until user passes valid information. not happening. weird things happen when try doesn't show error.

here's code:

mainactivity.java

public class mainactivity extends appcompatactivity {      private toolbar toolbar;     private linearlayout recyclerrow;       @override     protected void oncreate(bundle savedinstancestate) {         super.oncreate(savedinstancestate);         setcontentview(r.layout.activity_main);          paper.init(getapplicationcontext());          toolbar = (toolbar) findviewbyid(r.id.app_bar);         setsupportactionbar(toolbar);          getsupportactionbar().setdisplayshowhomeenabled(true);         navigationdrawerfragment drawerfragment = (navigationdrawerfragment) getsupportfragmentmanager().findfragmentbyid(r.id.fragment_navigation_drawer);         drawerfragment.setup(r.id.fragment_navigation_drawer, (drawerlayout) findviewbyid(r.id.drawer_layout), (toolbar) findviewbyid(r.id.app_bar));          recyclerview recyclerview = (recyclerview) findviewbyid(r.id.goallist);         rvadapter adapter = new rvadapter(getapplicationcontext(), getdata());         recyclerview.setadapter(adapter);         recyclerview.setlayoutmanager(new linearlayoutmanager(getapplicationcontext()));          recyclerrow = (linearlayout) findviewbyid(r.id.goal_row);         if(paper.get("goaltitle") == null){             recyclerview.setvisibility(view.gone);             recyclerrow.setvisibility(view.gone);         }     }       public list<rvdata> getdata() {          log.d("check6", paper.get("goaltitle") + "");         list<rvdata> data = new arraylist<>();         string[] titles = {(string) paper.get("goaltitle")};           (int = 0; < titles.length; i++) {             rvdata current = new rvdata();             current.goaltitle = titles[i];             data.add(current);         }          return data;     }        public void newgoal(view view) {         intent intent = new intent(mainactivity.this, newgoal.class);         startactivity(intent);     }      @override     public boolean oncreateoptionsmenu(menu menu) {         // inflate menu; adds items action bar if present.         getmenuinflater().inflate(r.menu.menu_main, menu);         return true;     }      @override     public boolean onoptionsitemselected(menuitem item) {         // handle action bar item clicks here. action bar         // automatically handle clicks on home/up button, long         // specify parent activity in androidmanifest.xml.         int id = item.getitemid();          //noinspection simplifiableifstatement         if (id == r.id.action_settings) {             return true;         }          return super.onoptionsitemselected(item);     } } 

i using paper database.

instead of setvisibility, can use setalpha(0) hide , setalpha(1) show. ended doing. quite working well. same effect if use visibility invisible.