How can I center a TextView on Android?

Question

I have a simple layout that only has one EditText and one TextView:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <LinearLayout
             android:layout_width="wrap_content"
             android:layout_height="wrap_content"
             android:orientation="vertical">

             <TextView
                android:id="@+id/lblName"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
                android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:textSize="25sp"
                android:textStyle="bold" />

             <EditText
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:textStyle="bold"
                android:textSize="15sp"
                android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
                android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
                android:id="@+id/txtName"/>
        </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

And I want to center the TextView to the center of the screen of my mobile phone.

I saw that I can replace my LinearLayout to a RelativeLayout as global layout and set the property android:gravity="center" to center it, but I ONLY want to center the TextView and not the EditText, which it's also centered with this function.

Is it possible to center just the TextView without center the EditText?

Note: Of course, I don't want to center it manually with margins.

EDIT: I want that the TextView will be center on the screen and the EditText will be in the nextLine (on the left of the screen). Something like this:

[                WIDHT OF THE SCREEN                ]
                 [TEXTVIEW-CENTER]
[EDITTEXT-LEFT]

Thanks in advance!

Do you have an image to depict exactly what you want? Where do you want the edittext to be? Above or below the textview or on the side? — Fareya, Aug 18 '15 at 23:56
@Fareya Oh, sorry now I edit my question but I don't know how to add an image. Thanks for correct me! — Francisco Romero, Aug 18 '15 at 23:59

RajSharma · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-19T00:56:23.847

1

Try changing your inside LinearLayout to something like this.`

    <LinearLayout
         android:layout_width="fill_parent"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"
         android:orientation="vertical">

` It will acquire all the screen space then EditText would be displayed.

If you use wrap_content in your inner Linear_layout then thw width of the inner Linear_layour would be wrapped according to its textView i.e it will act as a parent to textview but child for its outside layout. refer to the image.

but if you chnage its attribute to fill_parent it will fill the width according to its parent. I hope you can understand it now.

edited Aug 19 '15 at 00:56

answered Aug 19 '15 at 00:27

RajSharma

1,941
3
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Thank you very much! It was exactly what I needed! But... can you please explain me what it's the difference between put here `wrap_content` and `fill_parent`? And why with `wrap_content` it is displayed on the left of the screen? Thanks again! – Francisco Romero Aug 19 '15 at 00:33
I am glad to hear that it helped you. Please accept this as an answer if I answered your question correctly. – RajSharma Aug 19 '15 at 00:36
fill=parent means to fill the parent i.e a layout with fill=parent attribute will try to fill its parent but in case of warp_content it will try to warp it contents i.e in your case your textview size was small it was trying to warp its layout. – RajSharma Aug 19 '15 at 00:38
Can you please put a bit elaborate explanation in your answer instead of a comment? I don't really understand what you mean in that comment and I won't have any problem to mark it as accepted answer. – Francisco Romero Aug 19 '15 at 00:44
I edited my answer.if you still don't understand please refer to this.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/432763/whats-the-difference-between-fill-parent-and-wrap-content – RajSharma Aug 19 '15 at 01:02
1

Good answer. But just an observation. Use `match_parent` instead of `fill_parent` as the last one is deprecated. – Mauker Aug 19 '15 at 01:32
Now I understand it better but I have one more question: then `wrap_content` it's always displayed on the left of the screen? I mean, the `TextView` could be so big as the content is (wrapping it), but couldn't be center? And just a note: the `TextView` it's also inside the inner `LinearLayout`. Thanks again! – Francisco Romero Aug 19 '15 at 10:38

N.T. · Answer 2 · 2015-08-19T00:28:33.817

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:gravity="center">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:gravity="center_vertical">

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/lblName"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:textSize="25sp"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:text="Test"
            android:layout_gravity="center"/>

        <EditText
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="15sp"
            android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
            android:id="@+id/txtName"/>
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 19 '15 at 00:08

0

Change

android:orientation="horizontal"

to

android:orientation="vertical"

Add

android:layout_gravity="center"

in

TextView

answered Aug 19 '15 at 00:08

Fareya

1,523
10
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The `TextView` it's still on the left of the screen. – Francisco Romero Aug 19 '15 at 00:13
Did you change the orientation to vertical? – Fareya Aug 19 '15 at 00:15
Yes I changed it and it also doesn't work. I noticed now that I didn't put on my question that I have a `LinearLayout` wrapping both `EditText` and `TextView` (I though I put it before) so I'm going to edit my question. – Francisco Romero Aug 19 '15 at 00:22
your parent `LinearLayout` has a width of `wrap_content`, so it will center in as small a width as required to fit the children. – tachyonflux Aug 19 '15 at 00:26

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 19 '15 at 00:11

Use this :

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/LinearLayout1"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:text="@string/hello_world" />

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editText1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:ems="10" />

</LinearLayout>

I edited my question now because I forgot to put on my question that it was wrapped in another `LinearLayout` but according to this I think it should works but it's only on the left of the screen all the time. — Francisco Romero, Aug 19 '15 at 00:26

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 19 '15 at 00:59

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/lblName"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:textSize="25sp"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:layout_gravity="center"
            android:text="Sample Text"/>

        <EditText
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:textStyle="bold"
            android:textSize="15sp"
            android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
            android:id="@+id/txtName"/>
</LinearLayout>

How can I center a TextView on Android?

5 Answers5