Android Drawing Separator/Divider Line in Layout?

Question

I would like to draw a line right in the middle of a layout and use it as a separator of other items like TextView. Is there a good widget for this. I don't really want to use an image as it would be hard to match the other components to it. And I want it to be relatively positioned as well. Thanks

Answer 1

You can use this in LinearLayout :

android:divider="?android:dividerHorizontal"
android:showDividers="middle"

For Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:divider="?android:dividerHorizontal"
    android:showDividers="middle"
    android:orientation="vertical" >            

        <TextView 
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         android:text="abcd gttff hthjj ssrt guj"/>

        <TextView 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:text="abcd"/>
        <TextView 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:text="abcd gttff hthjj ssrt guj"/>

        <TextView 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:text="abcd"/>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 2

I usually use this code to add horizontal line:

<View
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="1dp"
    android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"/>

To add vertical separator, switch the layout_width and layout_height values

Answer 3

Divide the space in two equal parts:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:divider="?android:dividerHorizontal"
        android:showDividers="end"></LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"></LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Notice that one part contains a divider at the end

Answer 4

In cases where one is using android:layout_weight property to assign available screen space to layout components, for instance

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        ...
        ...
    </LinearLayout>

     /* And we want to add a verical separator here */

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        ...
        ...
     </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

To add a separator between the existing two layouts which has taken the entire screen space already, we cannot just add another LinearLayout with android:weight:"1" because that will make three equal width columns which we don't want. Instead, we will decrease the amount of space we will be giving to this new layout. Final code would look like this:

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        ...
        ...
    </LinearLayout>

                    /* *************** ********************** */

    /* Add another LinearLayout with android:layout_weight="0.01" and 
       android:background="#your_choice" */
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_weight="0.01"
        android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"
     />

    /* Or View can be used */
    <View
        android:layout_width="1dp"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"
     />

                     /* *************** ********************** */

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        ...
        ...
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 5

<View
            android:layout_width="2dp"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_marginTop="4dp"
            android:background="@android:color/darker_gray" />

Between two Layouts Put this code to get Divider.

Answer 6

To complete Camille Sévigny answer you can additionally define your own line shape for example to custom the line color.

Define an xml shape in drawable directory. line_horizontal.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" android:shape="line">
    <stroke android:width="2dp" android:color="@android:color/holo_blue_dark" />
    <size android:width="5dp" />
</shape>

Use this line in your layout with the wished attributes:

    <ImageView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingBottom="2dp"
        android:paddingLeft="5dp"
        android:paddingRight="5dp"
        android:paddingTop="2dp"
        android:src="@drawable/line_horizontal" />