Android: how to make a view grow to fill available space?

This seems straightforward, but I can't figure out how to do it. I have a horizontal layout with an EditText and two ImageButtons. I want the ImageButtons to be of a fixed size, and the EditText to take up the remaining space in the layout. How can this be accomplished?

<LinearLayout 
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        <EditText 
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        </EditText>
        <ImageButton 
            android:src="@drawable/img1"
            android:layout_width="50dip" 
            android:layout_height="50dip">
        </ImageButton>
        <ImageButton 
            android:src="@drawable/img2"
            android:layout_width="50dip" 
            android:layout_height="50dip">
        </ImageButton>
</LinearLayout>

Solution 1:

If you want to keep the layout the same (ie, buttons after the text), use the layout_weight property, along with fill_parent, thus:

<LinearLayout 
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <EditText 
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    </EditText>
    <ImageButton 
        android:src="@drawable/img1"
        android:layout_width="50dip" 
        android:layout_height="50dip">
    </ImageButton>
    <ImageButton 
        android:src="@drawable/img2"
        android:layout_width="50dip" 
        android:layout_height="50dip">
    </ImageButton>
 </LinearLayout>

Giving the EditText 'weight' makes it get figured out last and gives precedence to the buttons. Play with the different layout_weights and see how much fun you can have!

Solution 2:

try this in relative layout

<RelativeLayout 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <ImageButton 
        android:id="@+id/btn1"
        android:src="@drawable/icon"
        android:layout_width="50dip" 
        android:layout_height="50dip"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"/>
    <ImageButton 
        android:id="@+id/btn2"
        android:src="@drawable/icon"
        android:layout_width="50dip" 
        android:layout_height="50dip"
        android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/btn1"/>
    <EditText 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/btn2">
    </EditText>

</RelativeLayout>

Solution 3:

Okay:

<RelativeLayout 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <ImageButton 
            android:id="@+id/button1"
            android:src="@drawable/img1"
            android:layout_width="50dip"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true" 
            android:layout_height="50dip">
        </ImageButton>
        <ImageButton 
            android:src="@drawable/img2"
            android:layout_width="50dip" 
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:layout_toRightOf="@id/button1"
            android:layout_height="50dip">
        </ImageButton>
        <EditText 
            android:layout_below="@id/button"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent">
        </EditText>
</RelativeLayout>

The key points of the layout are:

  • The items with fixed sized are placed first in the layout, this way when Android comes to calculating the height of the height of things with fill_parent later in the file it only takes into account the remaining space, not all of the space it could possibly occupy if nothing else was there
  • The EditText has a height of fill_parent (match_parent in 2.2+) so that it takes up the rest of the available space

Sorry didn't read your question will enough. The above code provides the answer if you want to do it in a vertical fashion. For a horizontal layout the code posted by @Sunil should work.

Solution 4:

Use set the layout_width or layout_height to 0dp (By the orientation you want to fill remaining space). Then use the layout_weight to make it fill remaining space.