Getting child view to match_parent in Android

Question

I have a simple linear layout which I'm inflating in an adapter:

    @Override
    public View getView(final int position, View convertView, final ViewGroup parent) {

        if (convertView == null) {
            convertView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.category_listview_row, parent, false);
        } else {
            ((LinearLayout)convertView).removeAllViews();
        }

        if (LAYOUT_TYPES.GRID.equals(layoutType)) {
            convertView = CategoryFragment.getViewForGridLayout(context, displayArray, position, convertView, listener);
        } else {
            convertView = CategoryFragment.getViewForListLayout(context, displayArray, position, convertView, listener);
        }

        return convertView;
    }

Here, category_listview_row is the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:gravity="top"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

The getViewForGridLayout method programmatically creates one or more views and adds them to convertView.

I would like all the child views to match this parent view in height, however I can't get this to work. This is the outer linear layout of the child views that are added programmatically:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/base_listview_style_one_layout"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:padding="@dimen/node_default_spacing"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:background="#5ab9c6">

This layout has subviews which are removed according to the actual data to be displayed, so some will be longer than others. However I want them all to be the height of the parent so it doesn't look weird.

This is a screenshot of what I'm seeing:

• The first row is ok since both items have a title and a subtext
• On the second row, the second item doesn't have a subtext so that view is smaller. However, I'd like it to take the full height of the row so all items in a single row will have the same height.

Any tips? Thanks!

Answer 1

I would advise using a Recyclerview with GridLayoutManager.

If you want certain items spanning multiple columns, you can do so by setting SpanSizeLookup on the GridLayoutManager.

Here is a simple example https://stackoverflow.com/a/26907508/4498224.

Answer 2

Propably your layout params are ignored. Be sure that you are adding child views to your convertView like this:

View view = inflater.inflate( R.layout.item /* resource id */,
                                     convertView /* parent */,
                                     true /*attachToRoot, you dont need to call addView then*/);

Answer 3

Instead of removing the textview, why not just make it invisible or set its color to white to it occupies the space?

Answer 4

Please change your linearlayout height from wrap content to "match_parent".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:gravity="top"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />`

Answer 5

1. Set the height of parent layout to wrap_content.
2. Set the height of child view to match-parent.

Try this i hope it will resolve your issue.

Answer 6

@zundi you can use view holder design pattern with recycler view adapter and define which row needs to have two images and which one needs to have one. Its pretty much simpler than doing it with linear layout.

Recycleview show different view types has a pretty decent explanation on how to do this.

And also to answer you question of making

some rows with 2 items and other rows with 1 item

you can use setSpanSizeLookup (GridLayoutManager.SpanSizeLookup spanSizeLookup) method of GridLayoutManager and define it in the activity.

RecycleView's span size gives you more info on how to achieve that.

mLayoutManager.setSpanSizeLookUp(new GridLayoutManager.SpanSizeLookUp() {
     @Override
     public int getSpanSize(int position) {
         if(position == 0) 
            return 2; //here the view takes up two spaces in a row(header)
         else return 1; //here view takes 1 space i.e., 2 views in a total row
    } });

In the above example my grid layout manager takes 2 view holders based on different positions and decides if its header or not and populates the data.

Other Solution:

Rather than giving match parent and wrap parent inside your layout give a fixed 'dp' for height. That should make the views look consistent.

Answer 7

@zundi if doing it right way with RecyclerView and LayoutManager which would simplify you life dramatically but have a bit of learning curve doesn't suits you, here is an option that hasn't been mentioned yet:

You can define android:lines=x on TextView which contains subtext.

Just match_parent is not going to work for you because you want LinearLayout to wrap height of its children and its children to match_parent which is a circular dependency

Answer 8

This method can be performed on both Linear Layout or TextView you are using

You have set

android:layout_height="match_parent"

but not the height, so it is simple case

android:layout_height="match_parent"

So, in case even if there will be no value in the string it will still contain the height allotted to it