In Espresso, how to avoid AmbiguousViewMatcherException when multiple views match

Having gridView which has some images. The gridView's cell comes out from same predefined layout, which has same id and desc.

R.id.item_image == 2131493330

onView(withId(is(R.id.item_image))).perform(click());

Since all cells in the grid have same id, it got AmbiguousViewMatcherException. How to just pick up first one or any of one of them? Thanks!

android.support.test.espresso.AmbiguousViewMatcherException: 'with id: is <2131493330>' matches multiple views in the hierarchy. Problem views are marked with '****MATCHES****' below.

+------------->ImageView{id=2131493330, res-name=item_image, desc=Image, visibility=VISIBLE, width=262, height=262, has-focus=false, has-focusable=false, has-window-focus=true, is-clickable=false, is-enabled=true, is-focused=false, is-focusable=false, is-layout-requested=false, is-selected=false, root-is-layout-requested=false, has-input-connection=false, x=0.0, y=0.0} ****MATCHES****

+------------->ImageView{id=2131493330, res-name=item_image, desc=Image, visibility=VISIBLE, width=262, height=262, has-focus=false, has-focusable=false, has-window-focus=true, is-clickable=false, is-enabled=true, is-focused=false, is-focusable=false, is-layout-requested=false, is-selected=false, root-is-layout-requested=false, has-input-connection=false, x=0.0, y=0.0} ****MATCHES**** |

EDIT: Someone mentioned in the comments that withParentIndex is now available, give that a try first before using the custom solution below.

I was amazed that I couldn't find a solution by simply providing an index along with a matcher (i.e. withText, withId). The accepted answer only solves the problem when you're dealing with onData and ListViews.

If you have more than one view on the screen with the same resId/text/contentDesc, you can choose which one you want without causing an AmbiguousViewMatcherException by using this custom matcher:

public static Matcher<View> withIndex(final Matcher<View> matcher, final int index) {
    return new TypeSafeMatcher<View>() {
        int currentIndex = 0;

        @Override
        public void describeTo(Description description) {
            description.appendText("with index: ");
            description.appendValue(index);
            matcher.describeTo(description);
        }

        @Override
        public boolean matchesSafely(View view) {
            return matcher.matches(view) && currentIndex++ == index;
        }
    };
}

For example:

onView(withIndex(withId(R.id.my_view), 2)).perform(click());

will perform a click action on the third instance of R.id.my_view.

You should use onData() to operate on GridView:

onData(withId(R.id.item_image))
        .inAdapterView(withId(R.id.grid_adapter_id))
        .atPosition(0)
        .perform(click());

This code will click on the image inside first item in GridView

Not completely related to grid view situation but you can use hamcrest allOf matchers to combine multiple conditions:

import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.allOf;

onView(allOf(withId(R.id.login_password), 
             withEffectiveVisibility(ViewMatchers.Visibility.VISIBLE)))
        .check(matches(isCompletelyDisplayed()))
        .check(matches(withHint(R.string.password_placeholder)));

Tried @FrostRocket answer as was looking most promissing but needed to add some customisations:

public static Matcher<View> withIndex(final Matcher<View> matcher, final int index) {
    return new TypeSafeMatcher<View>() {
        int currentIndex;
        int viewObjHash;

        @SuppressLint("DefaultLocale") @Override
        public void describeTo(Description description) {
            description.appendText(String.format("with index: %d ", index));
            matcher.describeTo(description);
        }

        @Override
        public boolean matchesSafely(View view) {
            if (matcher.matches(view) && currentIndex++ == index) {
                viewObjHash = view.hashCode();
            }
            return view.hashCode() == viewObjHash;
        }
    };
}

I created a ViewMatcher which matches the first view it finds. Maybe it is helpful for somebody. E.g. when you don't have an AdapterView to use onData() on.

/**
 * Created by stost on 15.05.14.
 * Matches any view. But only on first match()-call.
 */
public class FirstViewMatcher extends BaseMatcher<View> {


   public static boolean matchedBefore = false;

   public FirstViewMatcher() {
       matchedBefore = false;
   }

   @Override
   public boolean matches(Object o) {
       if (matchedBefore) {
           return false;
       } else {
           matchedBefore = true;
           return true;
       }
   }

   @Override
   public void describeTo(Description description) {
       description.appendText(" is the first view that comes along ");
   }

   @Factory
   public static <T> Matcher<View> firstView() {
       return new FirstViewMatcher();
   }
}

Use it like this:

 onView(FirstViewMatcher.firstView()).perform(click());