Develop Reference

TextView changes size because of margin

When I use Android:margin to position textView half-outside it's parent, it acts weirdly: changes it's own size and text is moving inside textView box. How do I prevent it?
On image: left textView has cropped text at the end, and I don't want that.
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_margin="16dp"
android:clipChildren="false">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:ellipsize="none"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF"
android:textSize="22.5dp"
android:layout_marginRight="200dp"
tools:text="0 TEXT VIEWVIEW"
tools:textColor="#000000" />
<...>
</FrameLayout>

FrameLayout always overlaps its Children. For effective placing widgets I suggest to use,
LinearLayout with layout_weight
arrange widgets relative to another widget by using RelativeLayout

You have two problems here:
You are using a FrameLayout. This means that when you keep increasing the margin of child, the view is gonna move out of the parent. Why? Because that's how FrameLayout is designed. Read documentation here: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/FrameLayout.html
FrameLayout is designed to block out an area on the screen to display a single item. Generally, FrameLayout should be used to hold a single child view, because it can be difficult to organize child views in a way that's scalable to different screen sizes without the children overlapping each other.
So instead you could use RelativeLayout or LinearLayout.
The second problem you have is android:singleLine="true". This means that as the text increases in length, it will still be shown in a single line and hence the text will be clipped. So set this to false, or just remove this attribute.
android:singleLine="false"

i think you need to change the line:
android:singleLine="true"
to false.

Have elements equally span entire width / height of their RelativeLayout

I have, say three buttons i would like to list below one another in a layout. Depending on the device, screen size, pixel density, orientation and so on, i would like the buttons to span the entire height of their parent layout. The buttons each have a fixed height (dp), so the spanning is more likely concerning the space between the buttons.
I saw several questions on various forums regarding how a LinearLayout is supposedly a fix for this problem, by nesting a layout for each element, having the layout span. I would very much like to avoid nesting layouts, and I'm using a RelativeLayout as of now, so if there is any way to go about it with this type of layout it will be of great help! :)
Additionally, I would like the top and bottom button to "touch" the parent layout border at the top and bottom, and the last (or rest) button to fill out the rest of the vertical space equally.
Thank you in advance.

I'm not entirely sure what you wish to achieve, but you should be able to do this using a LinearLayout & weights (so you don't have to nest multiple layouts).
If you want the 3 buttons to take up the entire parent of the screen just add a weight to each for example:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_one"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_two"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
<Button
android:id="#+id/button_three"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:layout_weight="1"/>
</LinearLayout>

Try to set to topButton a field in XML:
android:layout_alignTop="true";
Try to set to middleButton a field in XML:
android:layout_centerVertical="true";
Try to set to bottomButton a field in XML:
android:layout_alignBottom="true";

TextView would not horizontally center

My layout is the following:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/display_city"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_above="#+id/pollenType"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_below="#+id/get_pollen_index"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_marginTop="51dp"
android:textSize="40sp" />
As you can tell, Philadelphia, PA is left-aligned. No matter what I change, whether it's centering horizontal and vertical to true, it stays left-aligned.
I have tried changing the layout via the XML and graphical user interface. In the graphical user interface, it indeed is "centered", but it remains non-centered. My layout positions are consistent across all my textviews, so I am unsure as to why this particular TextView is not centered.

Two options...
One: Give the TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
Two: Keep the android:layout_width="match_parent" and use android:gravity="center_horizontal"
layout_gravity defines gravity of the view within its parent. Your textView already takes the full width because of match_parent, so centering it horizontally inside its parent does nothing.
gravity, on the other hand, defines the gravity of its contents.

You can center the text using the gravity xml attributes :
android:gravity="center"

Your width equals match_parent and therefore the edges of your TextView already touch the edges of the parent view. You should rather center the text in the TextView with android:gravity="center".

You're telling the display_city TextView to be as wide as the screen.
android:layout_width="match_parent"
However, its text is left aligned by default. That's why it looks this way.
You have two alternatives for what you want:
Keep the width as match_parent and center the text inside the TextView (with gravity).
Set the width to wrap_content and center the View inside its parent (with layout_gravity).

Layout troubles

I am having a spot of bother with a fairly simple layout. Here it is:
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/id1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/id2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall"/>
</LinearLayout>
3 Questions:
How do I center vertical both TextViews (or perhaps better said, the text within those views) within the parent LinearLayout? The left view is vertically centered OK, but the right one (because it has a smaller font) is not. It seems to be centered vertically at the top. I obviously tried playing with layout_gravity of the second view but that makes no difference whatsoever. The only way I can solve it is to wrap the second TextView in a LinearLayout with its layout height parameter set to match_parent (but is this the correct way of doing this?)
Similarly, I want the View on the left horizontally centered on the left, and the View on the right horizontally centered on the right. Currently the right View is placed immediatly next to the left one. The only way I can solve this is by adding something like this inbetween the two text views:
<TextView
android:layout_width="0dip"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:text="">
basically acting as a spacer which decreases in size depending on the legth of the text in both TextViews
I want the text in the left View to be truncated if the combined text of the Views does not fit horizontally. No wrapping onto a new line. Currently the text in the left View simply "pushes" the right one out of the parent. No idea how to achieve that (apart from adding android:maxLines="1" to stop the text from wrapping). I have tried android:ellipsize="end" but that does not seem to have any effect.

Best way is to use Relative layout , but still if you want to do the same thing in Linear layout than do some changes in your xml file
-First is set Linear layout hight as match parent :
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="horizonatal">
-Second for making the views visible at centre vertical do
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
same property android:layout_gravity = "center_horizontal" , you have to add in second text view also.
It will make your both text view appear at centre vertical but one next to other.
To make the second view appear on right I think you can add
android:layout_marginLeft="xx dp"
put some value in place of xx.
For your third question about truncating your text, you should give some size to your TextView not wrap content..Like android:layout_width ="25dp"
and then use android:ellipsize="end".
I guess you will get that..Actually I am in hurry,time to leave the office.

Android horizontal LinearLayout with wrapped text in TextView

I've observed a behavior with layout_weight that I can't explain. The following is a trivial example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
>
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:text="This is a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long string."
android:layout_weight="1"
/>
<View
android:layout_width="32dp"
android:layout_height="32dp"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
android:background="#ffffffff"
/>
</LinearLayout>
In a QVGA display, the TextView wraps the text. The white square is displayed to the right of the text.
However, if I remove android:layout_weight="1" from the TextView, the TextView now takes up the entire display width. The white square is no longer displayed.
Why would layout_weight in the TextView affect whether or not the white square is displayed? Shouldn't the View with the white background always be assigned 32dpx32dp first? (It makes no difference if the view were any other types - ImageView or TextView).
The problem I was working on is that I want the white square to always be displayed to the right of the TextView (whether or not the text is wrapped), but I don't want any empty space between the TextView and the white square. (If I add android:layout_weight="1" to the TextView, then there is a gap if the text is not wrapped.)
Any help would be appreciated!

To answer my question #1: One thing I learned by looking at the source for LinearLayout: Not only does layout_weight assign unused space to a child, it also shrinks a child with layout_weight if the child extends beyond the bounds of the LinearLayout. That explains why a TextView with wrapped text is shrunk in my layout.
As for the answer to my question #2, I think you meant android:toRigthOf instead of android:layout_alignRight. Using a RelativeLayout instead of a LinearLayout doesn't change the layout behavior. The tricky part is placing a view immediately to the right of a TextView, without gaps, whether or not the text is wrapped. Setting a maxWidth would limit the TextView's width, but that solution doesn't scale across portrait/landscape and different display dimensions.
Solution - Looks like Dyarish's solution is the best available. My layout problem exists regardless of the layout you use. The key is to set a maxWidth for the TextView so that it doesn't take up the all of the horizontal space in the layout. Because hardcoding a android:maxWidth value in the TextView doesn't scale across different displays, setting the maxWidth at runtime, as Dyarish suggested, is a good solution.

Hopefully this is what you are looking for.
First off, here is a great resource I found for Creating UI's.
layout_weight - Specifies how much of the extra space in the layout to be allocated to the View.
If you want to ensure that the white square is always to the right of the textview, you can use a Relative View, and add the parameter to the view. android:layout_alignRight="+id#yourTextViewID". This should always make the box appear right beside the textView area. You should probably also add something like android:maxWidth="250px" This will ensure that you don't push the white box completely out of the screen.
Here is a code sample:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
>
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:maxWidth="250px"
android:id="#+id/TextForWhiteBox"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center|left"
android:text="This is a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long string."
/>
<View android:background="#ffffffff" android:layout_width="32dp" android:layout_height="32dp" android:id="#+id/view1" android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/TextForWhiteBox"></View>
</RelativeLayout>
You could also add to the View:
android:layout_alignTop="#+id/TextForWhiteBox" android:layout_alignBottom="#+id/TextForWhiteBox"
to make the white box the same size as the TextView.

Firstly I've tested the code from my other answer and it does exactly what you've described you've wanted. (unless I'm misunderstanding what you are asking for). You definitely do not want to use the android:layout_alignRight which is not what is in the code sample. That would simply keep the box on the right hand of the screen and not be affected by the textview at all. This sample uses android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/TextForWhiteBox" which is possible due to it being a relative layout. Since the Relative Layout allows you to place objects in relation to others. That line will always place the box just to the right of the textview with no gaps.
As for the screen orientation changes:
When the orientation changes it creates a new instance of the view.
Here is a simple solution.
//Add to oncreate in your Activity
private TextView textStatus;
textStatus = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.TextForWhiteBox);
// This get's the width of your display.
DisplayMetrics displaymetrics = new DisplayMetrics();
getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(displaymetrics);
int width = displaymetrics.widthPixels;
// Now you know the screen orientation, and it's width. So just set the maxwidth of the text view to match the display width - the pixels of your white box.
textStatus.setMaxWidth(width - 32); // 32 is here because you already know the size of the white box. More logic is needed to dynamically get this value, because you would need to wait for the activity to be fully created.
}
Here is the main.xml I used:
<?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="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
>
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:id="#+id/TextForWhiteBox"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center|left"
android:text="This is a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long string."
/>
<View android:background="#ffffffff" android:layout_width="32px" android:layout_height="32px" android:id="#+id/view1" android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/TextForWhiteBox"></View>
</RelativeLayout>
You might need some additional logic to keep screen values.
This code has been tested, you should be able to literally copy and paste this to work as you asked.
Also depending on your logic you could use something like this to return the screen orientation.
int orient = getResources().getConfiguration().orientation;
Hope this helps!
If this helped you, please click the accepted button. =) Cheers!