The following code seems to work just fine the first time its used in the
app but when the user goes to hit the button that calls this Alert Dialog a
second time it creates a Force Close with this as the gist of the logcat
(full at the bottom): "The specified child already has a parent. You must
call removeView() on the child's parent first."

        final AlertDialog.Builder alert = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
        final EditText input = new EditText(this);

        alert.setTitle("Mileage");
        alert.setMessage("Set your mileage");

        alert.setView(input);
        alert.setPositiveButton("Ok", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener()
{

@Override
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {
 String value = input.getText().toString();
SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences("myDataStorage",
MODE_PRIVATE);
        Editor mEditor = prefs.edit();
        mEditor.putString("mileage", value);
            mEditor.commit();
            UpdateMileage();
            dialog.dismiss();

         public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {  
         dialog.cancel();
         dialog.dismiss();
         }  
        });

        //Update Button
        ImageButton UpdateBtn = (ImageButton)
findViewById(R.id.myride_update);
        UpdateBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
         public void onClick(View v) {
         alert.show();
         UpdateMileage();
         return;
         }
        });

///////////// Stack Trace /////////////
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):
java.lang.IllegalStateException: The specified child already has a parent.
You must call removeView() on the child's parent first.
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.view.ViewGroup.addViewInner(ViewGroup.java:1976)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.view.ViewGroup.addView(ViewGroup.java:1871)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.view.ViewGroup.addView(ViewGroup.java:1851)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
com.android.internal.app.AlertController.setupView(AlertController.java:365 )
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
com.android.internal.app.AlertController.installContent(AlertController.jav a:206)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.app.AlertDialog.onCreate(AlertDialog.java:251)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.app.Dialog.dispatchOnCreate(Dialog.java:307)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.app.Dialog.show(Dialog.java:225)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.app.AlertDialog$Builder.show(AlertDialog.java:812)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
com.ceistudios.android.application.Dashboard$14.onClick(Dashboard.java:298)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.view.View.performClick(View.java:2501)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:9107)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:587)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3812)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java: 841)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:599)
02-17 15:28:09.560: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(2503):     at
dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Can anyone give me any ideas here this is really frustrating I can't think
of any other way to implement this and I have to assume the user would mess
up and need to reach this dialog again.

What method is this code in?

Its all in the main method I have, part of the onCreate. Should I put it
outside the onCreate section?

please refer this link

http://www.androidpeople.com/android-alertdialog-example/
<http://www.androidpeople.com/android-alertdialog-example/> and

http://www.tutorialforandroid.com/2009/01/displaying-alertdialog-in-a...

<http://www.tutorialforandroid.com/2009/01/displaying-alertdialog-in-a...>this
will help you out.

Ok, well those helped out to a point... they helped me narrow down the line
of code that is causing the problem...

"alert.setView(input);"

If I comment it out the dialog opens as much as I need it to, of course that
also prevents the user from being able to enter any input in...

which is called initiated here:
final EditText input = new EditText(this);

and called here:
String value = input.getText().toString();

All of which is shown in the original code block for full context, Is there
something I have to do in order to get the view to remove itself or recycle?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3968170/android-prompt-users-input...

Whenever I create dialogs, I use onCreateDialog() and let the Activity
handle creation...
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#onCr...

To display the dialog use showDialog()...
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#show...

This lets the activity handle creating your dialog (and caches it)... Then
you can show it as many times as you want without a problem.

I follow the concept but I always have problems converting dev.android.com
documentation to real world use... can you show me some code to create an
activity managed dialog or point me to an online example. I'm looking around
and not finding very many examples (none that seem to work)... Thanks to
everyone that has looked at this and helped so far.

API demos has a sample of creating a bunch of different alert dialogs as
managed dialogs:

http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/ApiDemos/src/com/examp...

Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to
provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such
questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and
answer them.