Android buttons have big width in linearlayout when got weight

Question

I have tried to align 5 buttons in a LinearLayout with equal distance, everything looks good except the previous/next button, they have a bigger width. I am setting everything programmatically like this:

        LinearLayout.LayoutParams buttonParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(width, height, 1f);
        buttonParams.gravity = Gravity.CENTER;

        next.setBackground(android.support.v4.content.res.ResourcesCompat.getDrawable(getResources(), R.drawable.skipnext, null));
        previous.setBackground(android.support.v4.content.res.ResourcesCompat.getDrawable(getResources(), R.drawable.skipprevious, null));
        shuffle.setButtonDrawable(android.support.v4.content.res.ResourcesCompat.getDrawable(getResources(), R.drawable.shuffle, null));
        repeat.setButtonDrawable(android.support.v4.content.res.ResourcesCompat.getDrawable(getResources(), R.drawable.repeat, null));

        buttonsLayout.addView(repeat, buttonParams);
        buttonsLayout.addView(previous, buttonParams);
        buttonsLayout.addView(morphButton, buttonParams);
        buttonsLayout.addView(next, buttonParams);
        buttonsLayout.addView(shuffle, buttonParams);

        LinearLayout.LayoutParams buttonsParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
        buttonsParams.gravity = Gravity.CENTER;
        buttonsParams.setMargins(0, marginTop, 0, marginBottom);
        addView(buttonsLayout, buttonsParams);
        buttonsLayout.setWeightSum(5);
        buttonsLayout.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);

enter image description here

Bit off topic but any reason why you want it from code instead of XML? — Marcin Orlowski, Jul 03 '15 at 09:12
I like to create them from code and this is a custom object ( extending linearlayout ) not an activity. — Marian Pavel, Jul 03 '15 at 09:13
It does not matter what it is. Inflater is for eveyone to use. — Marcin Orlowski, Jul 03 '15 at 09:13
@PavelMarian buttonLayout is linearLayout ? If you have assigned weight to it then you also have to assign weight to all the buttons whose sum will be equal to 5. — Umair, Jul 03 '15 at 09:15
@Darkie I am setting weight to everybutton to sum 5 in params. — Marian Pavel, Jul 03 '15 at 09:16
did you tried assigning less weight to both buttons see if it makes any difference but the net sum should remain 5 ? — Umair, Jul 03 '15 at 09:17
@Darkie it did worked, thanks, today I've learned something, is the XML faster then code ? Please post the answer so I can mark it correct — Marian Pavel, Jul 03 '15 at 09:23

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

Try assigning less weight to both buttons but the net sum should remain = 5. And there is no difference between xml code or java code in case of speed but according to android documentation:

The advantage to declaring your UI in XML is that it enables you to better separate the presentation of your application from the code that controls its behavior. Your UI descriptions are external to your application code, which means that you can modify or adapt it without having to modify your source code and recompile. For example, you can create XML layouts for different screen orientations, different device screen sizes, and different languages. Additionally, declaring the layout in XML makes it easier to visualize the structure of your UI, so it's easier to debug problems.

You can study more here: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/declaring-layout.html

and also take a look at this answer: Android xml vs java layouts performance

hope it helps.

Android buttons have big width in linearlayout when got weight

1 Answers1