Develop Reference

Off-center alignment of text inside a TextView

I have a layout/alignment problem with a TextView which I haven't yet been able to find a solution for, that is, I want to align text off-center inside a TextView horizontally.
To give a little more context, I have an ImageView and a TextView side by side, the ImageView touching the left edge of the screen and the TextView filling the rest of the screen horizontally, like this:
[-img-|-----text-----]
The TextView is configured as singleLine="true" and maxLines="1", so that it will be truncated if its too long for its horizontal space. My aim is to align the text in the center of the screen, not the center of the TextView, because there are other elements on the screen that are aligned to the center and I need the text aligment to match that.
So, if I use gravity="center" on the TextView, I get the image above, but what I actually want is
[-img-|--text--------]
I tried putting image and text in a RelativeLayout, so that the TextView actually touches both edges of the screen, which does what I want with respect to the alignment, except that if the text is long enough, the first characters will be hidden by the image, since the TextView lies behind the image view.
I also experimented with margins, padding and a compound drawable to the left, but the text is always centered relative to the available space (which I would consider the expected behavior).
Does anybody have any clues on how to achieve this alignment, i.e. relative to the center of a different component than the TextView, maybe programmatically at runtime? Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.
Edit: user Budius suggested using padding to the right to achieve a centered alignment which works but leads to long texts being truncated before the right edge of the TextView is reached and I'm looking for a solution that avoids that, i.e. that uses the entire avilable space, if possible.

I believe that will center it and the move 20dp to the side.
gravity:centre padding:right=20dp

Try using
android:layout_weight="1"
if it helps you..

I know this is not the correct approach than too give it a try..
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight=".33"
android:src="#drawable/ic_launcher" />
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:layout_weight=".33"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="text" />
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight=".33"
android:src="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:visibility="invisible" />

Fixed-width TextView with stretched compound drawable

I'm trying to achieve the following layout: a fixed width TextView aligned to the left of its parent, with the text inside it aligned to the right side of that TextView (that's why fixed width, can it be done other way?) and the rest of the parent is filled with a drawable (simple line). Like this:
It's a ListView containing 2 types of rows and the layout for the rows with lines is quite trivial - LinearLayout with TextView and ImageView (I can post the exact code later if needed). And I'm getting a warning that it could be replaced with a single TextView with compound drawable.
I'm all for optimization so I really tried to follow that advice. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the same result - the line is either constrained to TextView's width or text is aligned to the right side of the ListItem, now to fixed position.
Am I missing something?
Edit: Apparently it is not actually possible and since there are some other complications (the drawable is now a level-list drawable, which is not always a line and sometimes it has a non-fixed height that I have to set) I will leave it as it is now - linear layout, containing one TextView and one ImageView.

I don't think that you're missing anything. The TextView compound drawable features are not very customizable and in general are not worth the time you spend trying to get them to look right. Some lint warnings are a little overzealous and premature.

The optimization that the lint refers to is something that is better attributed for a fixed size image. In your case, the line has to stretch the rest of the screen length and as such it is not something that can be done with a textview with compound drawable. This kind of lint warning is more of a suggestion rather than something that MUST be done and is detected by just checking for a linear layout with only a textview and an imageview rather than checking what would need to go in the image view. If you already have it working the way you did it I think you should leave it alone.

Your view create from this -
<?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:id="#+id/time"
android:layout_width="#dimen/today_time_width"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="left"
android:gravity="right"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp" />
<ImageView
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:id="#+id/border"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="#dimen/today_current"
android:src="?attr/item_boundary" />
</LinearLayout>

There is no way to achive this using only standart TextView. If you really want to reduce view count you can create your custom TextView class, set layoutWidth to matchParent and draw line from text end to right border. But it's not worth to be doing. Some extra views won't slow your list.

I am not sure if you will be able to achieve what you really want to , but then you could change the linear layout in the link you posted to something like this:
<RelativeLayout
android:id="#+id/relTrial"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtTime"
android:layout_width="100dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="right"
android:text="12:45 AM"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/lnrSep"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="1dp"
android:gravity="bottom"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#android:color/darker_gray"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/txtTime"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"></LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
This way the time text will be right aligned although being at the left side, and the line will also be visible.
Hope that helps.

If I got you right, you want to add bottom border to list view item?
What about to try this:
android:drawableBottom="#drawable/line"

Background of TextView with multiple lines not wrapping correctly

Background:
I've got a layout that consists of 6 items layed out as a grid (2x3). All items are as wide as half the screen (minus a little margin on each side). Each item is a RelativeLayout that contains an ImageView (the background) and a TextView (the label). The label is set to wrap the text, and it's allowed to grow almost as wide as the image it sits on top of. After that it will break into two lines.
Problem:
Everything looks good as long as the text fits on a single line (see top element in picture). The background wraps the text nicely. However, when the text is displayed on two lines the background gets too wide (see bottom item in picture). It fills up the maximum allowed width even though the text on the first line doesn't take up that much space. Is there a way to make the background wrap the text in the same way as it does when only one line is used?
Picture:
Layout XML:
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/item_image"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:scaleType="centerCrop" />
<!-- some stuff I had to remove... -->
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
android:paddingBottom="11.33333dp">
<!-- some other stuff I had to remove... -->
<!-- the gray background color is set to the TextView below programmatically together with the text itself. -->
<TextView
android:id="#+id/item_text_label"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginLeft="5.33333dp"
android:paddingLeft="7.33333dp"
android:paddingRight="20dp"
android:paddingTop="1dp"
android:paddingBottom="5.33333dp"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:gravity="right" />
</RelativeLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

One of the possibility of such problem is textSize.
It depends on how you are setting and which measuring unit you are using to set textSize of your TextView.
dp,sp,pt and in may cause to create such problems.
So try to go with mm or px specifically.
And as per my testing px will give you the best result.
EDITED :
Add following attribute to your TextView in layout file.
android:gravity="right|start"
Instead of :
android:gravity="right"
Thanks.

button text not getting centered vertically in button

I am creating an Android app, and I have a button with a custom background image behind it. The background image is just a rectangle, but now the button text does not seem to be centered vertically. Here is my xml for the button:
<Button
android:id="#+id/save_to_list"
android:layout_below="#+id/info_pic"
android:text="SAVE TO LIST"
android:textColor="#android:color/white"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:layout_width="260dp"
android:layout_height="35dp"
android:layout_marginTop="15dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="15dp"></Button>
and I set the background here:
ImageView button_bg = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.button_background);
savetolist_button.setBackgroundDrawable(button_bg.getDrawable());
Is there a where to change the position of the text within a button?

android:layout_gravity defines layout alignment inside it's parent. To align text within the button you need android:gravity, for example
<Button
...
android:gravity="center"
...>
</Button>

Your button is too short to fit the text properly. Increase the layout_height and the text should be centered.

Your text likely has some padding built into the font as part of each letter, and that is why your text is being pushed in one direction. Set the layout_height to "wrap_content" and your text should now be centered correctly.

I found it best to use a 9 patch image for a rectangular background rather than an xml drawable.

What controls the default padding between views?

When I put a view on a layout, it automatically has some padding/margin on it.
See this picture:
The red rectangle show the space that the button takes. Note the empty space between the button and the red lines. That's the space in question.
What controls that space and how to I change it ?
It's messing up my lisview's button alignments!
The code for that layout:
<Button
android:text="#+id/Button01"
android:id="#+id/Button01"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
<Button
android:text="#+id/Button02"
android:id="#+id/Button02"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</LinearLayout>

The button has a default background set by Android. If you look at Android source code, you can find that the button's background has a transparent area around it. This is done in order to make it into a nine-patch drawable. So you cannot remove that padding unless you specify your own background drawable for the button.