How do I change the order of the textviews and buttons in a linerLayout or RelativeLayout?

Question

I am totally new to stackoverflow, and only a couple of weeks with android mobile development.

A big thanks for stackoverflow, which is where I land on 90% of my google searches that begin with "Android eclipse".

Now to the chase.

I have a linearLayout with say a button and two textView elements.

Is it possible to dynamically:

1. Change their order?
2. Move some of them to another linearLayout or relativeLayout?

Answer 1

By dynamically you mean in java code?

If yes then those view should be added dynamically as well. and then to change their order you could remove them from the Layout and add them again in the order you would like. If you mean inside of you XML file, then all you need to do is to change their order in the XML file.

To add a view to a layout you should:

1. find the layout by id:

LinearLayout llviews = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.your_linear_layout_id);

2. Then, you can add a view to this layout:

TextView tvText = new TextView();
llviews.addView(tvText); 

3. and remove a view:

llviews.removeView(tvText);

Answer 2

1. Yes it is possible to change the order of views dynamically, even though the Views are added in XML.
2. Yes it's possible to move sub-views around from one layout to another layout.

Check out this example code:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    private Button button1, button2, button3;
    private CheckBox checkBox1;
    private LinearLayout ll1, ll2;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        ll1 = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.ll1);
        ll2 = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.ll2);

        button1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);
        button1.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View arg0) {
                // Move views around.
                float button2x = button2.getX();
                float button2y = button2.getY();

                float checkbox1x = checkBox1.getX();
                float checkbox1y = checkBox1.getY();

                button2.setX(checkbox1x);
                button2.setY(checkbox1y);

                checkBox1.setX(button2x);
                checkBox1.setY(button2y);
            }
        });

        button3 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button3);
        button3.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // Move a view from one layout to another.
                ll1.removeView(button2);
                ll2.addView(button2);
            }
        });

        button2 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button2);

        checkBox1 = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.checkBox1);
    }
}

=== activity_main.xml ===

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" android:id="@+id/ll1">

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="42dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="22dp"
        android:text="Button" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Button2" />

    <CheckBox
        android:id="@+id/checkBox1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="99dp"
        android:text="CheckBox" />

    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/ll2"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button3"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Button3" />

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>