how to create flexible layout with textview android

Question

I am developing an application and sharing a layout with multiple activity. In that layout i have 5 TextViews(and showing em as button) horizontally adjacent to each other now my problem is in some activity i dont need 1 or two TextView and i want the remaining textview to take full screen width of the layout by resizing itself.and these textviews are inside a linear layout.

here is the layout code.

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:layout_margin="2dip"
        android:orientation="horizontal" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/category"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="27dip"
            android:layout_marginRight="6dip"
            android:background="@drawable/button_an"
            android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
            android:paddingBottom="2dip"
            android:paddingLeft="5dip"
            android:paddingRight="5dip"
            android:paddingTop="2dip"
            android:text="Explore by Category"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="9dip" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/location"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="27dip"
            android:layout_marginRight="6dip"
            android:background="@drawable/button_an"
            android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
            android:paddingBottom="2dip"
            android:paddingLeft="5dip"
            android:paddingRight="5dip"
            android:paddingTop="2dip"
            android:text="Search by Location"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="9dip" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/date"
            android:layout_width="35dip"
            android:layout_height="27dip"
            android:layout_marginRight="6dip"
            android:background="@drawable/button_an"
            android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
            android:paddingBottom="2dip"
            android:paddingLeft="5dip"
            android:paddingRight="5dip"
            android:paddingTop="2dip"
            android:text="Date"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="9dip" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/mylocation"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="27dip"
            android:layout_marginRight="6dip"
            android:background="@drawable/button_an"
            android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
            android:paddingBottom="2dip"
            android:paddingLeft="5dip"
            android:paddingRight="5dip"
            android:paddingTop="2dip"
            android:text="My Location"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="9dip" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/namesearch"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="27dip"
            android:background="@drawable/button_an"
            android:gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
            android:paddingBottom="2dip"
            android:paddingLeft="5dip"
            android:paddingRight="5dip"
            android:paddingTop="2dip"
            android:text="Search by Name"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:textSize="9dip" />
    </LinearLayout>

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

Try to distribute equal weight to each of your textviews that will come out fine.

Answer 2

Try adding android:layout_weight="1" to your TextViews.

Answer 3

In your activity you can get references to your TextViews with findViewById(R.id.yourTxt);

then on the ones that you don't need you can call

txtView.setVisibility(View.GONE);

That will make them invisible, and make the space they would take up not be taken into consideration when drawing the Views.