Suppose your Spinner is named newSpinner, and it contains as one of its choices: "xyz".
To find and compare the position of "xyz" in the Spinner, you can use the following:
String compareValue = "xyz";
ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(this, R.array.select_state, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
newSpinner.setAdapter(adapter);
if (compareValue != null) {
int spinnerPosition = adapter.getPosition(compareValue);
newSpinner.setSelection(spinnerPosition);
}