How can I layout two TextViews horizontally so that they meet in the middle but only use as much space as is needed

Question

I'm trying to create a layout containing two horizontally aligned text fields with a preceding image icon for each. One of these fields is left aligned, and the other is right aligned, like this:

|[*]Some text [*]Some text]|

When the text fields get longer I want them to expand but not to overlap, ie

|[*]Some longer tex... [*]Some text|

|[*]Some text [*]Some longer tex...|

|[*]Some longer...[*]Some longer...|

I've been trying to do this with ConstraintLayout and horizontal chaining but the problem I've been running into is that the two textviews are evenly sized, regardless of how long the content string is.

What I want to achieve is a layout that uses the available free space for the text views but doesn't use more than it needs. Does anyone know how I can achieve this?

Current layout:

<?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"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imageView2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@+id/textView2"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:srcCompat="@android:drawable/btn_star_big_on" />

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imageView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.5"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="spread_inside"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:srcCompat="@android:drawable/btn_star_big_on" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:text="some absurdly even more long text"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@+id/textView2"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.5"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/imageView"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:text="shorter"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.5"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />


</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Answer 1

Try a chain that has a chain style of spread_inside. For each TextView, set android:ellipsize="end" and android:maxLines="1" for each view. Something like this:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@android:color/white">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:text="Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="spread_inside"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginEnd="8dp"
        android:ellipsize="end"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:text="Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world Hello world"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/textView2"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>