Develop Reference

Max lines with height set as wrap_content

I have two TextViews in a vertical LinearLayout, one serves as a display for a book's title and the latter as a display for the book's author(s).
I need the first to have wrap_content as its height, so it takes a good part of the linear layout. However, I want it to cap out at three lines max, so that there is still some space left for the second text view;
and I need the latter to fill the remaining space (0dp and layout_weight=0dp).
I want to use specific configuration so that the author view will be always right after the title view (on its bottom).
Something like this, however the max_lines do not kick in.
I tried to set max_lines to 3 and wrap_content for the first view height, but it seem that max_lines is ignored if height is set to wrap_content.
I also tried to circumvent the problem by sort of cheating and adding a max_height, but then the two views may be spaced apart from one another.
At last I tried to convert the linear layout to a constraint layout, to see if I could access some other layout settings to no avail.
Any help?

It seems to be working fine on my side with android:max_lines="3" even with wrap_content
This is just a test layout I created
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textview1"
android:layout_width="200dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:maxLines="3"
android:textSize="#dimen/_13sdp"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:text="Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Long Text"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textview2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:text="Very Very Short Text "
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="#+id/textview1"
app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="#+id/textview1" />
Screenshot ->
Hope this helps! :)

Replacing app:max_lines with android:max_lines seems to have fixed the issue.

Android: Cut off to long multiline text in TextView

I have a TextView with a height depending on previous content, but there might be a long Text in it. How can I cut it off at the right point and concatenate three dots or something similar to the new end?
Currently it looks like this:
I found some solutions for Single Line Text, but how does it work with more than one line? I also do not know the number of lines, because this depends on the screen size.
Are there other typical ways on Android to show that the text can be extended? E.g. a colour gradient in the last line?
Edit:
When I do it without a fixed heigth, I have to make the height depend on the element above and my XML will look like this:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/podcastShortDesc"
android:text="Long text"
android:layout_below="#+id/podcastTitle"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/podcastLogo"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:maxLines="3"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:layout_above="#+id/podcastMoreAction" />
When I do specify maxLines I can have luck an it will work:
But if the title is too big, it does not work:

You should add following code for "3 dots" at the end.
android:ellipsize="end"
You should remove fixed height property
android:layout_height="50dip"
instead you should add number of lines
android:maxLines="4"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
Android will take care everything else. In this way, even if text is smaller than 4 lines, android will take care size. If it is more than 4 lines, it will add "3 dots" :) Specify fixed height may cut your text.

Try this. Hope it will work.
<TextView
android:id="#+id/podcastShortDesc"
android:text="LONG LONG LONG TEXT"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dip"
android:maxHeight="50dp"
android:ellipsize="end"/>
I have tested 50dp can show two line in normal font size. So in 50dp height you should add maxLines 2.

Try this fix layout_height and add scroll in your textview
<TextView
android:id="#+id/text1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dip"
android:text="Hello......"
android:scrollbars="vertical"/>

Telegram android message cell

I am trying to make a layout like Telegram message box in android.
When the text is short the message and time are aligned in one single line as follows:
But when the message text is longer the time text view is pushed to the bottom of message like this:
How can i achieve this?
P.s. I tried to read the telegram source but wasn't able to figure it out. And i tried to get the size of my text view in adapter but wasn't successful.

Your shown example looks like a RelativeLayout with two TextViews in it (first TextView top-left and second TextView bottom-right).
It should be possible to accomplish this by using a RelativeLayout and two TextViews. The TextViews should be positioned correctly based on the length of the text (the second TextView displaying time should be always in bottom-right corner).

Actually they are not aligned in one line... :D I think you can achieve this by wrapping your TextView for time in RelativeLayout like that:
<LinearLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#drawable/background"
android:padding="10dp" >
<TextView style="#style/TextView_port"
android:id="#+id/text"
android:text="Text" />
<RelativeLayout style="#style/LinearLayout"
android:layout_below="#id/text"
android:layout_margin="10dp"
android:gravity="right" >
<TextView style="#style/TextView_port"
android:text="3:59pm"
android:textColor="#73B661" />
</RelativeLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Here i found a trick to set your text alignment to justify:
https://dzone.com/articles/android-%E2%80%93-how-display
EDIT
I finally came up with the solution - the edited code above is for short texts. Check programatically the length of the text and if it is more than 20 for example set orientation of the Linear to vertical and only top margin of the time TextView to -20 - I'll update my answer later if you don't know how :)

Android Layouts - Combining fills with wraps and gravities

I have an oddly organized activity with a number of LinLayouts inside of LinLayouts inside of LinLayouts (inside of LinLayouts) all so that each little section is organized correctly. Everything looks good except for one part.
I have a vertical LinearLayout with two things inside of it. One is another LinearLayout with weight set to 6, and below it is a TextView weight set to 1. What I want to do is have the height of the TextView to scale depending on the amount of lines in it. It could either be a one-liner sentence or maybe a four-line paragraph--I don't know what it'll end up. Then the LinLayout above it needs to fill in the rest of the height.
What layout_height settings do I need to combine to get this to work?

Finally figured it out. It's sort of weird, but this is what I had to do:
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/everything_but_description"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="1"
android:orientation="horizontal" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/description"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/paragraph" />
I had to have both set to "wrap_content" but give the one I wanted to fill the remaining space a weight WITHOUT giving the other one a weight. Very weird workaround but it works perfectly.

What does ellipsize mean in android?

I've added an EditText to my layout, and added a hint, and made it centered horizontally.
When running the application, the hint was invisible. I found that I should make ellipsize value of the TextView to be start:
<EditText
android:id="#+id/number1EditText"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ellipsize="start"
android:ems="10"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:hint="#string/hint1" />
In Android documentation, I read:
If set, causes words that are longer than the view is wide to be
ellipsized instead of broken in the middle.
The problem is that ellipsize is not found in the dictionary. Can anybody explain to me what benefits we can gain by ellipsize attribute? And what is the difference between start, end, middle?

You can find documentation here.
Based on your requirement you can try according option.
to ellipsize, a neologism, means to shorten text using an ellipsis, i.e. three dots ... or more commonly ligature …, to stand in for the omitted bits.
Say original value pf text view is aaabbbccc and its fitting inside the view
start's output will be : ...bccc
end's output will be : aaab...
middle's output will be : aa...cc
marquee's output will be : aaabbbccc auto sliding from right to left

In my experience, Ellipsis works only if the below two attributes are set.
android:ellipsize="end"
android:singleLine="true"
for the width of TextView, wrap_content or match_parent should both be good.

android:ellipsize added in API Level 1. An ellipsis is three periods in a row. (...) .
In your .xml
<TextView
....
android:text="Hi I am Amiyo, you can see how to ellipse works."
android:ellipsize = "end" />
At this point, the ellipsis will not display yet as a TextView is set to automatically expand on default when new text is entered. You will need to limit TextView in some way. Do this, you can use either add to your TextView a scrollHorizontally, minLines, or maxLines to have the ellipsis display.
To make the ellipse:
at the end: this is how it would.
use: android:ellipsize = "end"
And
in the middle:
use: android:ellipsize = "middle"
And
at the start:
use: android:ellipsize = "start"
And
to have no ellipse
use: android:ellipsize = "none"
Note Please :
Do not use android:singeLine = "true", it is deprecated.
android:maxLines = "1" will not display the three dots (...)
android:lines = "1" will not display the three dots (...)
For more details you can visit here

An ellipsis is three periods in a row...
The TextView will use an ellipsis when it cannot expand to show all of its text. The attribute ellipsized sets the position of the three dots if it is necessary.

Text:
This is my first android application and
I am trying to make a funny game,
It seems android is really very easy to play.
Suppose above is your text and if you are using ellipsize's start attribute it will seen like this
This is my first android application and
...t seems android is really very easy to play.
with end attribute
This is my first android application and
I am trying to make a funny game,...

Here is an example on how ellipsize works without using deprecated android:singleLine="true" in a ConstraintLayout:
<TextView
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textSize="13sp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="2"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
tools:text="long long long long long long text text text" />
remember if you have a text that is supposed to be in a single line, then change the maxLines to 1.

Note: your text must be larger than the container box for the following to marquee:
android:ellipsize="marquee"

Set this property to EditText. Ellipsize is working with disable EditText
android:lines="1"
android:scrollHorizontally="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:singleLine="true"
android:editable="false"
or setKeyListener(null);

Use ellipsize when you have fixed width, then it will automatically truncate the text & show the ellipsis at end,
it Won't work if you set layout_width as wrap_content & match_parent.
android:width="40dp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:singleLine="true"

As it is already mentioned above if there is no enough space for text (due to the size of the layout or set limitation) ellpsize will add ... dots to it.
Here an example:
Top: with ellipsize (here it is set to 'end'
Bottom: without