Set margins in a LinearLayout programmatically

Question

I'm trying to use Java (not XML) to create a LinearLayout with buttons that fill the screen, and have margins. Here is code that works without margins:

LinearLayout buttonsView = new LinearLayout(this);
buttonsView.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
for (int r = 0; r < 6; ++r) {
    Button btn = new Button(this);
    btn.setText("A");

    LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT); // Verbose!
    lp.weight = 1.0f; // This is critical. Doesn't work without it.
    buttonsView.addView(btn, lp);
}

ViewGroup.LayoutParams lp = new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);
setContentView(buttonsView, lp);

So that works fine, but how on earth do you give the buttons margins so there is space between them? I tried using LinearLayout.MarginLayoutParams, but that has no weight member so it's no good. And it doesn't work if you pass it lp in its constructor either.

Is this impossible? Because it sure looks it, and it wouldn't be the first Android layout task you can only do in XML.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams.html#setMargins(int, int, int, int) Instead of layoutParams.setMargins(30, 20, 30, 0); you put layoutParams.setMargins(30dp, 20dp, 30dp, 0dp); — DarthestVader, Jan 09 '12 at 17:40
setMargins takes int as arguments.. you can only provide "dp" using xml attributtes — jyavenard, Feb 01 '12 at 08:05

score 520 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 06 '15 at 18:57

520

Here is a little code to accomplish it:

LinearLayout ll = new LinearLayout(this);
ll.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);

LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(
     LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

layoutParams.setMargins(30, 20, 30, 0);

Button okButton=new Button(this);
okButton.setText("some text");
ll.addView(okButton, layoutParams);

edited Jul 06 '15 at 18:57

Barry Fruitman

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answered Jun 09 '10 at 00:22

Mauro

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Its possible to give the margins for the widgets in code too. – Vinayak Bevinakatti Jul 13 '10 at 11:45
7

thanks for a to-the-point code sample - way more beneficial than just descriptions – Someone Somewhere May 24 '11 at 19:08
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It looks like the margin params are set in pixels. Any way to set them in dps? – Artem Russakovskii Jul 14 '11 at 22:40
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@ArtemRussakovskii Like most functions in Android, they take pixels. I suggest a global utility function that converts dips to px. This is what I have done in all my apps. Android API sucks. – mxcl Jan 26 '12 at 12:00
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@MaxHowell That's what I ended up doing. It's incredible that basic things like that are missing sometimes. – Artem Russakovskii Jan 26 '12 at 23:20
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Is there a way of setting margin directly on a button e.g. myButton.setMargins(...) instead of having to nest the button in a linear layout? – Sep 17 '12 at 18:55
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@ArtemRussakovskii - use TypedValue.applyDimension(...) to convert DIP to PX. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2238883/what-is-the-correct-way-to-specify-dimensions-in-dip-from-java-code – Gautam Jul 01 '13 at 01:50
it reqires min API 11 – Maverick Jun 18 '14 at 10:09
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I have also used this way to convert dp to pixel: getResources().getDimension(R.dimen.col_2d3), which was declared in dimen.xml like 10dp. It is converted to 20 pixels on my device. – Demwis Sep 26 '14 at 01:03
If you want your design to scale to any screen you can set the widths of components to some fraction of the screen width. So if you want 4 buttons across the screen, make each of their widths a quarter of the screen width. You can even do this with text. – Graham Nov 01 '16 at 07:45
margin_30 = (int) TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 30, getResources().getDisplayMetrics()); – Orlay Garcia Duconge Nov 29 '19 at 04:18

score 63 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 20 '10 at 01:22

63

So that works fine, but how on earth do you give the buttons margins so there is space between them?

You call setMargins() on the LinearLayout.LayoutParams object.

I tried using LinearLayout.MarginLayoutParams, but that has no weight member so it's no good.

LinearLayout.LayoutParams is a subclass of LinearLayout.MarginLayoutParams, as indicated in the documentation.

Is this impossible?

No.

it wouldn't be the first Android layout task you can only do in XML

You are welcome to supply proof of this claim.

Personally, I am unaware of anything that can only be accomplished via XML and not through Java methods in the SDK. In fact, by definition, everything has to be doable via Java (though not necessarily via SDK-reachable methods), since XML is not executable code. But, if you're aware of something, point it out, because that's a bug in the SDK that should get fixed someday.

answered Mar 20 '10 at 01:22

CommonsWare

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Ha, ok I understand now. Was getting a bit lost in the layout system which is rather complicated. I don't think there's anyway to set layout_widgth/height at runtime. – Timmmm Mar 20 '10 at 10:51
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And there's no way to set the style: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2016249/how-to-programmatically-setting-style-attribute-in-a-view – Timmmm Mar 20 '10 at 11:04
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I haven't had a problem with setting width and height at runtime via `LayoutPararms`. I terms of styles...yeah, well, there's a reason I don't use 'em. :-) – CommonsWare Mar 20 '10 at 11:42
In Java you set the layout_width/height XML attributes by creating a layoutparams object and setting the Width and Height on it, then setting it either on the view or when adding your view to another view. The attribute name actually indicates exactly this: layout_width sets set width of the layout (rather than the view object that you give the attribute to). – Ludvig A. Norin Feb 25 '11 at 19:56
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I want to know why it's such a PITA to programmatically generate a UI – Someone Somewhere May 24 '11 at 19:05
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Took me ages to realise, that infact a few days ago I imported the wrong LayoutParams that didnt support Margins... Reading these answers I decided to remove my import. There are over 10 options D: I went for linearLayout.LayoutParams. Works. – IAmGroot May 17 '12 at 12:09
He he.. I loved the last statement!! – Rise Mar 27 '13 at 09:01

score 33 · Answer 3 · answered May 09 '13 at 11:23

To add margins directly to items (some items allow direct editing of margins), you can do:

LayoutParams lp = ((ViewGroup) something).getLayoutParams();
if( lp instanceof MarginLayoutParams )
{
    ((MarginLayoutParams) lp).topMargin = ...;
    ((MarginLayoutParams) lp).leftMargin = ...;
    //... etc
}
else
    Log.e("MyApp", "Attempted to set the margins on a class that doesn't support margins: "+something.getClass().getName() );

...this works without needing to know about / edit the surrounding layout. Note the "instanceof" check in case you try and run this against something that doesn't support margins.

2

Its exactly I looking for. – djdance Jul 24 '14 at 21:04

Rupesh Yadav · Answer 4 · 2014-06-09T13:25:31.440

Due to variation in device screen pixel densities its good to always use DIP unit to set margin programmatically. Like below_

//get resources
Resources r = getResources();
float pxLeftMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 10, r.getDisplayMetrics());
float pxTopMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 10, r.getDisplayMetrics());
float pxRightMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 10, r.getDisplayMetrics());
float pxBottomMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 20, r.getDisplayMetrics());

//get layout params...
LayoutParams params=new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
params.setMargins(Math.round(pxLeftMargin), Math.round(pxTopMargin), Math.round(pxRightMargin), Math.round(pxBottomMargin));

//set margin...
yourLayoutTOsetMargin.setLayoutParams(params);

Hope this will help.

score 12 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 17 '15 at 08:21

I have set up margins directly using below code

LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.yourrelative_layout);
LayoutParams params = new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);            
params.setMargins(3, 300, 3, 3); 
layout.setLayoutParams(params);

Only thing here is to notice that LayoutParams should be imported for following package android.widget.RelativeLayout.LayoutParams, or else there will be an error.

score 8 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 01:53

8

 MarginLayoutParams layoutParams = (MarginLayoutParams) getLayoutParams();
 layoutParams.setMargins(leftMargin, topMargin, rightMargin, bottomMargin);

answered Oct 20 '16 at 01:53

Ginni

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“While this code may answer the question, it is better to include the explanation of the code here. – xenteros Oct 20 '16 at 06:29

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 07 '13 at 09:35

7

Try this

 LayoutParams params = new LayoutParams(
            LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,      
            LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT
    );
    params.setMargins(left, top, right, bottom);
    yourbutton.setLayoutParams(params);

answered Oct 07 '13 at 09:35

Karan Bhalodiya

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score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 26 '17 at 05:07

5

Try this:

MarginLayoutParams params = (MarginLayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams();
params.width = 250;
params.leftMargin = 50;
params.topMargin = 50;

edited Apr 26 '17 at 05:07

xlm

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answered Apr 26 '17 at 04:26

Makvin

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered May 06 '15 at 09:14

/*
 * invalid margin
 */
private void invalidMarginBottom() {
    RelativeLayout.LayoutParams lp = (RelativeLayout.LayoutParams) frameLayoutContent.getLayoutParams();
    lp.setMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);
    frameLayoutContent.setLayoutParams(lp);
}

you should be ware of the type of the view's viewGroup.In the code above, for example,I want to change the frameLayout's margin,and the frameLayout's view group is a RelativeLayout，so you need to covert to (RelativeLayout.LayoutParams)

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 19 '17 at 11:00

0

Here a single line Solution:

((LinearLayout.LayoutParams) yourLinearLayout.getLayoutParams()).marginToAdd = ((int)(Resources.getSystem().getDisplayMetrics().density * yourDPValue));

answered Apr 19 '17 at 11:00

Stappo

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score 0 · Answer 11 · edited May 24 '22 at 20:54

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Core-KTX:

 updateLayoutParams<RecyclerView.LayoutParams> {
                topMargin = 10
                rightMargin = 10
                bottomMargin = 10
                leftMargin = resources.getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.left)
            }

Instead of RecycleView, use whatever your view is on ViewGroup.

edited May 24 '22 at 20:54

Dharman

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answered Jul 28 '21 at 13:55

Владислав Шестернин

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Set margins in a LinearLayout programmatically

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