Is there an easy way to add a border to the top an

Question

I have a TextView and I'd like to add a black border along its top and bottom borders. I tried adding android:drawableTop and android:drawableBottom to the TextView, but that only caused the entire view to become black.

<TextView
    android:background="@android:color/green"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:drawableTop="@android:color/black"
    android:drawableBottom="@android:color/black"
    android:text="la la la" />

Is there a way to easily add a top and bottom border to a View (in particular, a TextView) in Android?

Answer 1

To change this:

<TextView
    android:text="My text"
    android:background="@drawable/top_bottom_border"/>

I prefer this approach in "drawable/top_bottom_border.xml":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:angle="270"
                android:startColor="#000"
                android:centerColor="@android:color/transparent"
                android:centerX="0.01" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item>
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:angle="90"
                android:startColor="#000"
                android:centerColor="@android:color/transparent"
                android:centerX="0.01" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

This only makes the borders, not a rectangle that will appear if your background has a color.

Answer 2

// Just simply add border around the image view or view

<ImageView
                android:id="@+id/imageView2"
                android:layout_width="90dp"
                android:layout_height="70dp"
                android:layout_centerVertical="true"
                android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
                android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/imageView1"
                android:background="@android:color/white"
                android:padding="5dip" />

// After that dynamically put color into your view or image view object

objView.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN);

//VinodJ/Abhishek

Answer 3

Write down below code

<View
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="2dip"
    android:layout_below="@+id/topics_text"
    android:layout_marginTop="7dp"
    android:layout_margin="10dp"
    android:background="#ffffff" />

Answer 4

Simplest way to add borders to inset the borders using InsetDrawable,following will shoe top border only :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<inset xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:insetBottom="-2dp"
    android:insetLeft="-2dp"
    android:insetRight="-2dp">
    <shape android:shape="rectangle">

        <solid android:color="@color/light_gray" />
        <stroke
            android:width=".5dp"
            android:color="@color/dark_gray" />
    </shape>
</inset>

Answer 5

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView3"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="2dp"
    android:background="#72cdf4"
    android:text=" aa" />

Just Add this TextView below the text where you want to add the border

Answer 6

The currently accepted answer doesn't work. It creates thin vertical borders on the left and right sides of the view as a result of anti-aliasing.

This version works perfectly. It also allows you to set the border widths independently, and you can also add borders on the left / right sides if you want. The only drawback is that it does NOT support transparency.

Create an xml drawable named /res/drawable/top_bottom_borders.xml with the code below and assign it as a TextView's background property.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#DDDD00" /> <!-- border color -->
        </shape>
    </item>

    <item
        android:bottom="1dp" 
        android:top="1dp">   <!-- adjust borders width here -->
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#FFFFFF" />  <!-- background color -->
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Tested on Android KitKat through Marshmallow