Set margins in a LinearLayout programmatically

Question

I'm trying to use Java (not XML) to create a LinearLayout with buttons that fill the screen, and have margins. Here is code that works without margins:

LinearLayout buttonsView = new LinearLayout(this);
buttonsView.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
for (int r = 0; r < 6; ++r) {
    Button btn = new Button(this);
    btn.setText("A");

    LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT); // Verbose!
    lp.weight = 1.0f; // This is critical. Doesn't work without it.
    buttonsView.addView(btn, lp);
}

ViewGroup.LayoutParams lp = new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);
setContentView(buttonsView, lp);

So that works fine, but how on earth do you give the buttons margins so there is space between them? I tried using LinearLayout.MarginLayoutParams, but that has no weight member so it's no good. And it doesn't work if you pass it lp in its constructor either.

Is this impossible? Because it sure looks it, and it wouldn't be the first Android layout task you can only do in XML.

Answer 1

Due to variation in device screen pixel densities its good to always use DIP unit to set margin programmatically. Like below_

//get resources
Resources r = getResources();
float pxLeftMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 10, r.getDisplayMetrics());
float pxTopMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 10, r.getDisplayMetrics());
float pxRightMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 10, r.getDisplayMetrics());
float pxBottomMargin = TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 20, r.getDisplayMetrics());

//get layout params...
LayoutParams params=new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
params.setMargins(Math.round(pxLeftMargin), Math.round(pxTopMargin), Math.round(pxRightMargin), Math.round(pxBottomMargin));

//set margin...
yourLayoutTOsetMargin.setLayoutParams(params); 

Hope this will help.

Answer 2

Here is a little code to accomplish it:

LinearLayout ll = new LinearLayout(this);
ll.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);

LinearLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(
     LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

layoutParams.setMargins(30, 20, 30, 0);

Button okButton=new Button(this);
okButton.setText("some text");
ll.addView(okButton, layoutParams);

Answer 3

 MarginLayoutParams layoutParams = (MarginLayoutParams) getLayoutParams();
 layoutParams.setMargins(leftMargin, topMargin, rightMargin, bottomMargin);

Answer 4

To add margins directly to items (some items allow direct editing of margins), you can do:

LayoutParams lp = ((ViewGroup) something).getLayoutParams();
if( lp instanceof MarginLayoutParams )
{
    ((MarginLayoutParams) lp).topMargin = ...;
    ((MarginLayoutParams) lp).leftMargin = ...;
    //... etc
}
else
    Log.e("MyApp", "Attempted to set the margins on a class that doesn't support margins: "+something.getClass().getName() );

...this works without needing to know about / edit the surrounding layout. Note the "instanceof" check in case you try and run this against something that doesn't support margins.