Android - Weird TextView Behavior

Question

I'm a bit puzzled, I'm currently designing an Activity's UI and two of the TextView widget in the said UI are acting a bit weird.

I have set the background to android:background="#CCCCCC" in order to observe the behavior more easily, this will eventually be removed when I obtain the look I'm aiming for.

When both the TextView are empty, the behavior is what I expect from my UI :

But when the TextView are filled with different length strings, the width gets changed :

Here's the code attached to my UI's row.

        <TableRow android:weightSum="2" >
            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/tvDate"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="1"
                android:background="#CCCCCC"
                android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
                android:padding="4dp"
                android:textColor="#000000" />

            <View
                android:layout_width="8dp"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent" />

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/tvTime"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="1"
                android:background="#CCCCCC"
                android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
                android:padding="4dp"
                android:textColor="#000000" />
        </TableRow>

So far I've tried to change the android:layout_width parameter to a plethora of values with different android:padding and android:layout_weight combination. But nothing gave me the desired effect (which is to have the two TextView occupy the same ammount of space).

I'm far from an Android XML expert so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I would suggest using a LinearLayout.

<LinearLayout
     android:layout_width="fill_parent"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:weightSum="1.0"
     android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
     android:id="@+id/tvDate"
     android:layout_width="0dp"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:layout_weight="0.5"
     android:background="#CCCCCC"
     android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
     android:paddingRight="4dp"
     android:textColor="#000000" />
<TextView
     android:id="@+id/tvTime"
     android:layout_width="0dp"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:layout_weight="0.5"
     android:background="#CCCCCC"
     android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
     android:paddingLeft="4dp"
     android:textColor="#000000" />
</LinearLayout>

<LinearLayout
     android:layout_width="fill_parent"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:weightSum="1.0"
     android:orientation="horizontal">
<Button
     android:id="@+id/buttonDate"
     android:layout_width="0dp"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:layout_weight="0.5"
     android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
     android:paddingRight="4dp"
     android:text="Pick Date" />
<Button
     android:id="@+id/buttonTime"
     android:layout_width="0dp"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:layout_weight="0.5"
     android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
     android:paddingLeft="4dp"
     android:text="Pick Time" />
</LinearLayout>