Dynamic android:orientation value for LinearLayout depending on device orientation without the need for 2 identical XML layouts

Question

I have a XML layout that works just fine on a landscape and portrait orientation with one exception - two buttons inside a LinearLayout need to be placed horizontally on landscape and vertically on portrait device orientation.

I was wondering if there is some easy way to just define a dynamic variable or a string that can be placed in the XML layout file, without having to have to make 2 identical copies of it in layout and layout-land folders.

Consider using re-usable layouts with or directives http://developer.android.com/training/improving-layouts/reusing-layouts.html — Alexander Zhak, Sep 22 '14 at 16:27

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

3

I ended up doing it programmatically:

if (getResources().getConfiguration().orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE) {
     // landscape
     linearlayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL); 
} else {
    // portrait  
    linearlayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL); 
}

Source

edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Community

1
1

answered Sep 23 '14 at 14:34

Dzhuneyt

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 06 '20 at 15:41

Orientation is an enum under the hood with 0 serving as horizontal and 1 serving as vertical. What I did is in res/values/integer.xml I placed a default entry for landscape as 0 and then in res/values-port/integer.xml I placed the same entry but with value 1.

So I have:

/res/values/integer.xml

<resources>
    <item name="linearlayoutOrientation" type="integer">0</item>
</resources>

/res/values-port/integer.xml

<resources>
    <item name="linearlayoutOrientation" type="integer">1</item>
</resources>

And then in my layout file I declare orientation as follows:

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="@integer/linearlayoutOrientation">

That's the best solution by far. – b0b Apr 25 '23 at 09:52 — b0b, Apr 25 '23 at 09:52

Dynamic android:orientation value for LinearLayout depending on device orientation without the need for 2 identical XML layouts

2 Answers2