CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-constraintlayout
Luciano Ferruzzi
Luciano Ferruzzi

Reputation: 1092

How to proper align three TextViews horizontally with ConstraintLayout

I'm trying to align three TextViews horizontally (as the title may suggest), but even after chaining they together and using app:layout_constrainedWidth="true" they're still being pushed out of the screen, strangely only by the left side when the middle or the last one grows large. Notice that I'm setting the android:maxLines="1" and android:ellipsize="end" and aligning they at the start of the screen, not sure if it matters though.

I also tried to limit their sizes, but on the case where there are two small texts and a very large one the large one will be ellipsized even when the layout still have some space left.

Sample layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:background="@android:color/white"
        android:padding="22dp">

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/greenTextView"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
            android:ellipsize="end"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:textColor="@android:color/holo_green_dark"
            app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@id/blueTextView"
            app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
            app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
            tools:text="TextView" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/blueTextView"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
            android:ellipsize="end"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:textColor="@android:color/holo_blue_dark"
            app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
            app:layout_constraintBaseline_toBaselineOf="@id/greenTextView"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@id/orangetextView"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/greenTextView"
            tools:text="Another TextView " />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/orangetextView"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
            android:ellipsize="end"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:textColor="@android:color/holo_orange_dark"
            app:layout_constrainedWidth="true"
            app:layout_constraintBaseline_toBaselineOf="@id/blueTextView"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/blueTextView"
            tools:text="Another TextView" />
    </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

These are some cases using the sample layout

None of the TextViews are ellipsizing:

First case

The first TextView is ellipsizing:

Second case

The last TextView don't ellipsize and pushes the other ones out of the screen:

Third case

These are some possible solutions that aren't covering all of the cases

Using android:maxWidth="90dp" to prevent the TextView to grow, but also limiting the text unnecessarily:

Fourth case

Using android:layout_width="0dp" to enable "match_constraint" is not a optimal solution as well, since the layout will reserve a third of the display width for each TextView, even if the text is smaller than that:

Fifth case

Upvotes: 5

Views: 4406

Answers (3)

Bruno Martins
Bruno Martins

Reputation: 1436

Use a Flexbox

<com.google.android.flexbox.FlexboxLayout
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:alignContent="flex_start"
        app:alignItems="flex_start"
        app:flexWrap="nowrap"
        app:dividerDrawable="@drawable/ic_divider"
        app:showDivider="middle">

    <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:textSize="18sp"
            app:layout_minWidth="50dp"
            android:textColor="@android:color/holo_green_dark"
            android:ellipsize="end"
            android:text="Text View"/>
    <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:ellipsize="end"
            android:textColor="@android:color/holo_blue_dark"
            android:textSize="18sp"
            app:layout_minWidth="50dp"
            android:text="Another TextView"/>
    <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:maxLines="1"
            android:textColor="@android:color/holo_orange_dark"
            android:textSize="18sp"
            app:layout_minWidth="50dp"
            android:ellipsize="end"
            android:text="Another TextView"/>

</com.google.android.flexbox.FlexboxLayout>

Output of this layout:

Short text

Equalized text size

Long text

Upvotes: 3

Salman
Salman

Reputation: 2471

You can use linear layout instead. When the text grows it will ellipsized end with ...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@android:color/white"
    android:padding="22dp">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/greenTextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:textColor="@android:color/holo_green_dark"
        tools:text="TextView" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/blueTextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:textColor="@android:color/holo_blue_dark"
        tools:text="Another TextView " />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/orangetextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:textColor="@android:color/holo_orange_dark"
        tools:text="Another TextView" />
</LinearLayout>

OUTPUT:

enter image description here

Upvotes: 0

ror
ror

Reputation: 3500

Can you try this one (just make sure to replace androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout with android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout) :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@android:color/white"
    android:padding="22dp">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/greenTextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:textColor="@android:color/holo_green_dark"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@id/blueTextView"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        tools:text="First Very Long Text 123456789" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/blueTextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:textColor="@android:color/holo_blue_dark"
        app:layout_constraintBaseline_toBaselineOf="@id/greenTextView"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@id/orangetextView"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/greenTextView"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        tools:text="Second Very Long Text 123456789" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/orangetextView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:textColor="@android:color/holo_orange_dark"
        app:layout_constraintBaseline_toBaselineOf="@id/blueTextView"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/blueTextView"
        tools:text="Third Very Long Text 123456789" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Ellipsize will work as expected.

enter image description here

Upvotes: -1

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