Check orientation on Android phone

Question

How can I check if the Android phone is in Landscape or Portrait?

Answer 1

If you use getResources().getConfiguration().orientation on some devices you will get it wrong. We used that approach initially in http://apphance.com. Thanks to remote logging of Apphance we could see it on different devices and we saw that fragmentation plays its role here. I saw weird cases: for example alternating portrait and square(?!) on HTC Desire HD:

CONDITION[17:37:10.345] screen: rotation: 270 orientation: square
CONDITION[17:37:12.774] screen: rotation: 0 orientation: portrait
CONDITION[17:37:15.898] screen: rotation: 90
CONDITION[17:37:21.451] screen: rotation: 0
CONDITION[17:38:42.120] screen: rotation: 270 orientation: square

or not changing orientation at all:

CONDITION[11:34:41.134] screen: rotation: 0
CONDITION[11:35:04.533] screen: rotation: 90
CONDITION[11:35:06.312] screen: rotation: 0
CONDITION[11:35:07.938] screen: rotation: 90
CONDITION[11:35:09.336] screen: rotation: 0

On the other hand, width() and height() is always correct (it is used by window manager, so it should better be). I'd say the best idea is to do the width/height checking ALWAYS. If you think about a moment, this is exactly what you want - to know if width is smaller than height (portrait), the opposite (landscape) or if they are the same (square).

Then it comes down to this simple code:

public int getScreenOrientation()
{
    Display getOrient = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
    int orientation = Configuration.ORIENTATION_UNDEFINED;
    if(getOrient.getWidth()==getOrient.getHeight()){
        orientation = Configuration.ORIENTATION_SQUARE;
    } else{ 
        if(getOrient.getWidth() < getOrient.getHeight()){
            orientation = Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
        }else { 
             orientation = Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
        }
    }
    return orientation;
}

Answer 2

Another way of solving this problem is by not relying on the correct return value from the display but relying on the Android resources resolving.

Create the file layouts.xml in the folders res/values-land and res/values-port with the following content:

res/values-land/layouts.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <bool name="is_landscape">true</bool>
</resources>

res/values-port/layouts.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <bool name="is_landscape">false</bool>
</resources>

In your source code you can now access the current orientation as follows:

context.getResources().getBoolean(R.bool.is_landscape)

Answer 3

Simple and easy :)

1. Make 2 xml layouts ( i.e Portrait and Landscape )

2. At java file, write:

   private int intOrientation;
   

   at onCreate method and before setContentView write:

   intOrientation = getResources().getConfiguration().orientation;
   if (intOrientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT)
       setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
   else
       setContentView(R.layout.layout_land);   // I tested it and it works fine.
   

Answer 4

You can use this (based on here) :

public static boolean isPortrait(Activity activity) {
    final int currentOrientation = getCurrentOrientation(activity);
    return currentOrientation == ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT || currentOrientation == ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
}

public static int getCurrentOrientation(Activity activity) {
    //code based on https://www.captechconsulting.com/blog/eric-miles/programmatically-locking-android-screen-orientation
    final Display display = activity.getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
    final int rotation = display.getRotation();
    final Point size = new Point();
    display.getSize(size);
    int result;
    if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_0
            || rotation == Surface.ROTATION_180) {
        // if rotation is 0 or 180 and width is greater than height, we have
        // a tablet
        if (size.x > size.y) {
            if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_0) {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
            } else {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE;
            }
        } else {
            // we have a phone
            if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_0) {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
            } else {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT;
            }
        }
    } else {
        // if rotation is 90 or 270 and width is greater than height, we
        // have a phone
        if (size.x > size.y) {
            if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_90) {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
            } else {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE;
            }
        } else {
            // we have a tablet
            if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_90) {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT;
            } else {
                result = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
            }
        }
    }
    return result;
}

Answer 5

I think this code may work after orientation change has take effect

Display getOrient = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();

int orientation = getOrient.getOrientation();

override Activity.onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) function and use newConfig,orientation if you want to get notified about the new orientation before calling setContentView.

Answer 6

A fully way to specify the current orientation of the phone:

    public String getRotation(Context context){
    final int rotation = ((WindowManager) context.getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE)).getDefaultDisplay().getOrientation();
           switch (rotation) {
            case Surface.ROTATION_0:
                return "portrait";
            case Surface.ROTATION_90:
                return "landscape";
            case Surface.ROTATION_180:
                return "reverse portrait";
            default:
                return "reverse landscape";
            }
        }

Chear Binh Nguyen