How did you know you needed a list adapter and more importantly, that you needed to extend base adapter?

Ben's solution to the problem was to use a ListView to display the list of rows with a hole number, stroke count, minus and plus button. Every list needs some kind of adapter because an adapter is a bridge between a list and a datasource. In other words, the adapter for this project is what helps the list know what should be displayed for each row. A Base Adapter is a superclass which is used for a number of Adapter types. In other words, it is what gives an adapter its ability to act as a bridge between the list and a datasource. It does so by doing some work for you in the background provided you implement its required methods. But using a Base Adapter was not the only way. It was also possible to use an Array Adapter. It you were to use a RecyclerView, it has its own Adapter pattern. This is the case where there is more than one way to solve the same problem but as Ben said you should not worry if your way of solving the problem is the same as his, just so long as yours works.