EditText Label?

Question

I want to have some layout a bit like this

[text tabel][edittext]

i cant find an attribute like html esque label. It seems to be the case that i need to use

[TextView][EditText]

but i cant get them to go on the same line this is my xml file.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">"
<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/boat_1"/>
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/entry"
    android:hint="@string/IRC"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"/>
<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/boat_2"/>
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/entry"
    android:hint="@string/IRC"
    android:minWidth="100dip"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"/>
<Button android:id="@+id/close"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
    android:text="@string/title_close" />

Answer 1

The design support library has the TextInputLayout which animates the hint text turning it into a label when the user starts typing and can also show a red error message.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/design/widget/TextInputLayout.html

Answer 2

You have basically two options:

Option 1: Use nested LinearLayouts:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
android:orientation="vertical" 
android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
android:layout_height="wrap_content"> 
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal" 
android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:text="@string/boat_1"/> 
<EditText 
    android:id="@+id/entry" 
    android:hint="@string/IRC" 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"/> 
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal" 
android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:text="@string/boat_2"/> 
<EditText 
    android:id="@+id/entry" 
    android:hint="@string/IRC" 
    android:minWidth="100dip" 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"/> 
</LinearLayout>
<Button android:id="@+id/close" 
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" 
    android:text="@string/title_close" /> 

Notice that I'm using android:orientation="horizontal" for those nested layouts.

Option 2: you can use another content manager, like RelativeLayout.

The advantage of this, is that you can avoid nesting, thus your layout will be easier to read/maintain/inflate. This is a brief example:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
    android:orientation="vertical" 
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/text_view_boat1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:text="@string/boat_1"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/> 
    <EditText 
        android:id="@+id/entry" 
        android:hint="@string/IRC" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/text_view_boat1"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/> 
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/text_view_boat2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:text="@string/boat_2"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_below="@id/text_view_boat1"/> 
    <EditText 
        android:id="@+id/entry2" 
        android:hint="@string/IRC" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/text_view_boat2"
        android:layout_below="@id/entry"/> 
</RelativeLayout>

Answer 3

Your LinearLayout has the attribute android:orientation="vertical" so of course everything is going to be displayed vertically within it.

Try wrapping a TextView and EditText with a LinearLayout that has android:orientation="horizontal"