How to size textview to not go outside the screen

Question

I have to implement a chat bot, but i don't know how to size the textview for the messages.

What i have now is this

I want that the ballon exactly fit the text, without the white blank space on the right, without using maxWidth.

My code is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatImageView
        android:id="@+id/bot_icon"
        android:layout_width="50dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:adjustViewBounds="true"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        android:src="@drawable/ic_botchat"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        />

    <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/bot_icon"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/bot_icon">

        <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
            android:id="@+id/textMessage"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
            android:background="@drawable/bot_message"
            android:elevation="3dp"
            android:fontFamily="@font/roboto"
            android:paddingStart="16dp"
            android:paddingTop="10dp"
            android:paddingEnd="16dp"
            android:paddingBottom="10dp"
            android:textColor="@color/visia"
            android:textSize="18sp"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"/>

    </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

I tried to modify the android:layout_width in the AppCompatTextView with wrap_content, but the text is visualised in one line, going out of the screen.

Answer 1

According to this answer, you can not achieve what you want by using the default TextView and you need to have a custom text view where you override the onMeasure method so that the maximum width will be the width of your largest line.

Answer 2

Edit your layout to be like this

<?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"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="#D7D7D7">

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatImageView
        android:id="@+id/bot_icon"
        android:layout_width="50dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:adjustViewBounds="true"
        android:src="@drawable/ic_botchat"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
        android:id="@+id/textMessage"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:layout_marginBottom="8dp"
        android:background="@drawable/bot_message"
        android:elevation="3dp"
        android:fontFamily="@font/roboto"
        android:maxLines="2"
        android:paddingStart="16dp"
        android:paddingTop="10dp"
        android:paddingEnd="16dp"
        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
        android:text="Lorem Ipsum."
        android:textColor="@color/visia"
        android:textSize="18sp"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/bot_icon"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/bot_icon" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Then create XML file "bot_message.xml"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <corners
        android:bottomLeftRadius="20dp"
        android:bottomRightRadius="20dp"
        android:topLeftRadius="0dp"
        android:topRightRadius="20dp" />

    <solid android:color="#F5F5F5" />

</shape>

Answer 3

If your question is about how to remove the right space in the textView, simply remove this line in your textview attributes:

app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"

You are actually bounding the end of your textview to the end of its parent which is why wrap_content is not functioning well. So the result would be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatImageView
    android:id="@+id/bot_icon"
    android:layout_width="50dp"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:adjustViewBounds="true"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
    android:src="@drawable/boy_icon"
    android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
    />

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/bot_icon"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/bot_icon">

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
        android:id="@+id/textMessage"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:background="@drawable/round_gray_20"
        android:elevation="3dp"
        android:paddingStart="16dp"
        android:paddingTop="10dp"
        android:paddingEnd="16dp"
        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
        android:text="fsdfsdfsdfsdsfsd "
        android:textColor="@color/blackText"
        android:textSize="18sp"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Note that I may have changed some drawables and have used mine to be able to see the result. So revert them to the original ones accordingly.

Answer 4

try to put a width for the text parent and put the text wrap_content

Answer 5

use the attribute "maxLines" to specify the number of lines your textview should have. For example,

android:maxLines="2"