how to show progress bar(circle) in an activity having a listview before loading the listview with data

There are several methods of showing a progress bar (circle) while loading an activity. In your case, one with a ListView in it.

IN ACTIONBAR

If you are using an ActionBar, you can call the ProgressBar like this (this could go in your onCreate()

requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_INDETERMINATE_PROGRESS);  
setProgressBarIndeterminateVisibility(true);

And after you are done displaying the list, to hide it.

setProgressBarIndeterminateVisibility(false);

IN THE LAYOUT (The XML)

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/linlaHeaderProgress"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:visibility="gone" >

        <ProgressBar
            android:id="@+id/pbHeaderProgress"
            style="@style/Spinner"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
        </ProgressBar>
    </LinearLayout>

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:cacheColorHint="@android:color/transparent"
        android:divider="#00000000"
        android:dividerHeight="0dp"
        android:fadingEdge="none"
        android:persistentDrawingCache="scrolling"
        android:smoothScrollbar="false" >
    </ListView>
</LinearLayout>

And in your activity (Java) I use an AsyncTask to fetch data for my lists. SO, in the AsyncTask's onPreExecute() I use something like this:

// CAST THE LINEARLAYOUT HOLDING THE MAIN PROGRESS (SPINNER)
LinearLayout linlaHeaderProgress = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.linlaHeaderProgress);

@Override
protected void onPreExecute() {    
    // SHOW THE SPINNER WHILE LOADING FEEDS
    linlaHeaderProgress.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}

and in the onPostExecute(), after setting the adapter to the ListView:

@Override
protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {     
    // SET THE ADAPTER TO THE LISTVIEW
    lv.setAdapter(adapter);

    // CHANGE THE LOADINGMORE STATUS TO PERMIT FETCHING MORE DATA
    loadingMore = false;

    // HIDE THE SPINNER AFTER LOADING FEEDS
    linlaHeaderProgress.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}

EDIT: This is how it looks in my app while loading one of several ListViews

You can do this easier.
Source: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/android_loading_spinner.htm
It helped me.

Layout:

<ProgressBar
   android:id="@+id/progressBar1"
   style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleLarge"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />

After defining it in xml, you have to get its reference in java file through ProgressBar class. Its syntax is given below:

private ProgressBar spinner;
spinner = (ProgressBar)findViewById(R.id.progressBar1);

After that you can make its disappear , and bring it back when needed through setVisibility Method. Its syntax is given below:

spinner.setVisibility(View.GONE);
spinner.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

I used this one for list view loading may helpful.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:paddingLeft="5dp"
android:paddingRight="5dp" >

<LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/progressbar_view"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:orientation="horizontal" >

        <ProgressBar
            style="?android:attr/progressBarStyle"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
            android:text="Loading data..." />
    </LinearLayout>

    <View
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="1dp"
        android:background="#C0C0C0" />
</LinearLayout>

<ListView
    android:id="@+id/listView"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_marginTop="1dip"
    android:visibility="gone" />

</RelativeLayout>

and my MainActivity class is,

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
ListView listView;
LinearLayout layout;
List<String> stringValues;
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);
    layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.progressbar_view);

    stringValues = new ArrayList<String>();

    adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,
            android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, stringValues);

    listView.setAdapter(adapter);
    new Task().execute();
}

class Task extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, Boolean> {
    @Override
    protected void onPreExecute() {
        layout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        listView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
        super.onPreExecute();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Boolean result) {
        layout.setVisibility(View.GONE);
        listView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
        super.onPostExecute(result);
    }

    @Override
    protected Boolean doInBackground(String... params) {
        stringValues.add("String 1");
        stringValues.add("String 2");
        stringValues.add("String 3");
        stringValues.add("String 4");
        stringValues.add("String 5");

        try {
            Thread.sleep(3000);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return null;
    }
}
}

this activity display progress for 3sec then it will display listview, instead of adding data statically to stringValues list you can get data from server in doInBackground() and display it.