Android LinearLayout Tutorial
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LinearLayout is a ViewGroup that arranges the child View(s) in a single direction, either vertically or horizontally. You can specify its orientation by using the android:orientation attribute.

<!-- Horizontal LinearLayout (Default) --> <LinearLayout ... android:orientation="horizontal"> ... </LinearLayout> <!-- Vertical LinearLayout --> <LinearLayout ... android:orientation="vertical"> ... </LinearLayout>

For example: Use Java code to create LinearLayout, and add child View(s) to LinearLayout:
// linearLayout = new LinearLayout(MainActivity.this); // linearLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL); LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 0); Button button1 = new Button(this); button1.setText("Button"); linearLayout.addView(button1, layoutParams); Button button2 = new Button(this); button2.setText("Long Button"); button2.setLayoutParams(layoutParams); linearLayout.addView(button2);
android:layout_weight is an important attribute used for child View(s) of LinearLayout. It specifies how much space the child View(s) will take up in the parent View (LinearLayout) (horizontally or vertically). A layout_weight value greater than zero allows the child View to expand to fill any remaining space in the parent View. Child View(s) can be specified with a layout_weight value > 0, and then any remaining space in the parent View will be assigned to child View(s) according to their layout_weight ratio.
When all the child View(s) have android:layout_weight=0, you will see an empty space in the parent View (LinearLayout):

The child View(s) have android:layout_weight>0 will take up the free space of the parent View (LinearLayout):

The free space of the parent View (LinearLayout) will be allocated to the child View(s) in accordance with their layout_weight ratio.

The android:layout_weight attribute means the same thing in a vertical LinearLayout:

The android:layout_gravity attribute is applied to a child View to specify the relative position of the child View within the parent View (LinearLayout).
Constant in Java | Value | Description |
Gravity.LEFT | left | |
Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL | center_horizontal | |
Gravity.RIGHT | right | |
Gravity.TOP | top | |
Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL | center_vertical | |
Gravity.BOTTOM | bottom | |
Gravity.START | start | |
Gravity.END | end | |
Gravity.CENTER | center | |


Padding is the space in LinearLayout (inside the border), and surrounds 4 sides of the content.

You can set padding for LinearLayout by using the following attributes:
- android:padding
- android:paddingTop
- android:paddingRight
- android:paddingBottom
- android:paddingLeft

<LinearLayout ... android:orientation="horizontal" android:paddingTop="20dp" android:paddingRight="30dp" android:paddingBottom="10dp" android:paddingLeft="20dp"> <Button android:id="@+id/button1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Button" /> </LinearLayout>
Sometimes if you would like to set the space among the child View(s) of LinearLayout, there are several ways for you to handle this:
android:layout_margin
By applying the android:layout_margin attribute to all child View(s) of LinearLayout will help set the distance between them.

* layout_margin (Java code) *
// linearLayout = new LinearLayout(MainActivity.this); // linearLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL); LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 0); layoutParams.setMargins(30, 20, 30, 0); Button button1 = new Button(this); button1.setText("Button"); linearLayout.addView(button1, layoutParams); Button button2 = new Button(this); button2.setText("Long Button"); button2.setLayoutParams(layoutParams); linearLayout.addView(button2);
Space View
Android 4.0+ (API Level 14+) supports a new type of View called Space, which helps you add a free space to the interface. You can use Space to separate the child View(s) within LinearLayout.

<LinearLayout ... android:layout_width="0dp" android:layout_height="200dp" android:background="#EFF6E7" android:orientation="horizontal"> <Button android:id="@+id/button1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Button" /> <Space android:layout_width="10dp" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" /> <Button android:id="@+id/button2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Long Button" /> <Button android:id="@+id/button3" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Button" /> </LinearLayout>
* Add Space (Java code) *
// linearLayout = new LinearLayout(MainActivity.this); // linearLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL); LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 0); LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams2 = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(15, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 0); Button button1 = new Button(this); button1.setText("Button"); linearLayout.addView(button1, layoutParams); // Create a Space View. Space space = new Space(this); space.setLayoutParams(layoutParams2); linearLayout.addView(space); Button button2 = new Button(this); button2.setText("Long Button"); button2.setLayoutParams(layoutParams); linearLayout.addView(button2);
android:divider
Android 3.0+ (API Level 11+) permits you to add a Divider between the two child View(s) in LinearLayout. Moreover, you can specify the style and color for the Divider.

* Divider *
<LinearLayout ... android:orientation="horizontal"> <Button android:id="@+id/button1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Button" /> <!-- Divider --> <View android:id="@+id/divider" android:layout_width="15dp" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:layout_weight="0" android:background="?android:attr/listDivider" /> <Button android:id="@+id/button2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Long Button" /> <Button android:id="@+id/button3" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0" android:text="Button" /> </LinearLayout>

* Add Divider (Java code) *
// linearLayout = new LinearLayout(MainActivity.this); // linearLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL); LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 0); LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams2 = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(15, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, 0); Button button1 = new Button(this); button1.setText("Button"); linearLayout.addView(button1, layoutParams); // Create a Divider. View divider = new View(this); // android:background="?android:attr/listDivider" divider.setBackgroundResource(android.R.drawable.divider_horizontal_bright); linearLayout.addView(divider, layoutParams2); Button button2 = new Button(this); button2.setText("Long Button"); button2.setLayoutParams(layoutParams); linearLayout.addView(button2);
See more detailed article about Divider, it helps you customize Divider to suit your application:
- TODO Link!