How can I create a table with borders in Android?

android tablelayout

My solution for this problem is to put an xml drawable resource on the background field of every cell. In this manner you could define a shape with the border you want for all cells. The only inconvenience is that the borders of the extreme cells have half the width of the others but it's no problem if your table fills the entire screen.

An Example:

drawable/cell_shape.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape= "rectangle"  >
        <solid android:color="#000"/>
        <stroke android:width="1dp"  android:color="#ff9"/>
</shape>

layout/my_table.xml

<?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:orientation="vertical">

    <TableRow
        android:id="@+id/tabla_cabecera"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"></TableRow>

    <TableLayout
        android:id="@+id/tabla_cuerpo"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">

        <TableRow
            android:id="@+id/tableRow1"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

        </TableRow>

        <TableRow
            android:id="@+id/tableRow2"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>
        </TableRow>

        <TableRow
            android:id="@+id/tableRow3"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

        </TableRow>

        <TableRow
            android:id="@+id/tableRow4"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView1"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/cell_shape"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:text="TextView"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"></TextView>

        </TableRow>
    </TableLayout>


</LinearLayout>

Edit: An example

enter image description here

Edit2: Another example (with more elements: circle corners, gradients...) enter image description here

I have explained this issue with more details in http://blog.intelligenia.com/2012/02/programacion-movil-en-android.html#more. It's in spanish but there are some codes and images of more complex tables.


I have to agree with Brad. That was an awful answer. The Android documentation states that TableLayout containers do not display border lines, so sending them to the Android site wont help them a bit. I was able to find a "dirty" solution on droidnova, which involves setting a background color for the TableLayout, then setting a different background color for the TableRow and adding layout_margin to the row. I'm not fond of this solution, but it does work for row borders. I guess you could do the same thing with the items composing each "cell" item but I haven't verified.

An example similar to the one on DroidNova:

<TableLayout android:background="#000000"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
  <TableRow android:background="#FFFFFF"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:layout_margin="1dp">
     ...
  </TableRow>
</TableLayout>

IF you are just trying to have a line in between rows (for example, just above a "Total" row) then there is an easy solution - just add a TableRow with a background color and a specific layout_height such as this:

<TableRow android:layout_height="1px" android:background="#BDBDBD">
   <TextView android:layout_span="2" android:layout_height="1px" 
             android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:text="">
   </TextView>
</TableRow>

Set android:layout_height="1px" or however thick you want the border to be. Fill in as many empty TextView columns as you need to match the rest of your table, or just use one along with android:layout_span as I have demonstrated.

The output will look something like this:

Table Border demonstrated

If you are trying to add more complicated borders then the other answers already posted are more appropriate.


What I wanted is a table like this

table image with vertical dividers

I added this in my styles.xml :

      <style name="Divider">
        <item name="android:layout_width">1dip</item>
        <item name="android:layout_height">match_parent</item>
        <item name="android:background">@color/divider_color</item>
    </style>

    <style name="Divider_invisible">
        <item name="android:layout_width">1dip</item>
        <item name="android:layout_height">match_parent</item>
    </style>

Then in my table layout :

 <TableLayout
            android:id="@+id/table"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:stretchColumns="*" >

            <TableRow
                android:id="@+id/tableRow1"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:background="#92C94A" >

                <TextView
                    android:id="@+id/textView11"
                    android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                    android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                    android:paddingRight="5dp"
                    android:paddingTop="10dp" />

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

                    <View style="@style/Divider_invisible" />
                </LinearLayout>

                <TextView
                    android:id="@+id/textView12"
                    android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                    android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                    android:paddingRight="5dp"
                    android:paddingTop="10dp"
                    android:text="@string/main_wo_colon"
                    android:textColor="@color/white"
                    android:textSize="16sp" />

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

                    <View style="@style/Divider" />
                </LinearLayout>

                <TextView
                    android:id="@+id/textView13"
                    android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                    android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                    android:paddingRight="5dp"
                    android:paddingTop="10dp"
                    android:text="@string/side_wo_colon"
                    android:textColor="@color/white"
                    android:textSize="16sp" />

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

                    <View style="@style/Divider" />
                </LinearLayout>

                <TextView
                    android:id="@+id/textView14"
                    android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                    android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                    android:paddingRight="5dp"
                    android:paddingTop="10dp"
                    android:text="@string/total"
                    android:textColor="@color/white"
                    android:textSize="16sp" />
            </TableRow>

            <!-- display this button in 3rd column via layout_column(zero based) -->

            <TableRow
                android:id="@+id/tableRow2"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:background="#6F9C33" >

                <TextView
                    android:id="@+id/textView21"
                    android:padding="5dp"
                    android:text="@string/servings"
                    android:textColor="@color/white"
                    android:textSize="16sp" />

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

                    <View style="@style/Divider" />
                </LinearLayout>

..........
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