Android LinearLayout

Android LinearLayout arranges its children horizontally in a row, or vertically in a column.

LinearLayout in XML

LinearLayout tag name is used in layout xml files.

A sample code of LinearLayout in XML layout file is

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent"
   android:orientation="horizontal"
   android:gravity="center">

   <!-- child views -->

 </LinearLayout>

LinearLayout widget supports many attributes. In the above code snippet, we have given some of them: layout_width, layout_height, orientation and gravity. We will go through each one of them with examples.

Example – LinearLayout

Let us create an Android Application with Kotlin support, and use the following code activity_main.xml layout file.

We have a LinearLayout with vertical orientation and five children. The children are text views.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:padding="25sp"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        android:background="#F5F5F5"
        android:text="Item 1" />
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:padding="25sp"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        android:background="#FFFFFF"
        android:text="Item 2" />
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:padding="25sp"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        android:background="#F5F5F5"
        android:text="Item 3" />
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:padding="25sp"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        android:background="#FFFFFF"
        android:text="Item 4" />
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:padding="25sp"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        android:background="#F5F5F5"
        android:text="Item 5" />

</LinearLayout>

MainActivity.kt

package com.kotlinandroid.myapp

import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
    }
}

Screenshot