How to add dividers and spaces between items in RecyclerView?

Question

This is an example of how it could have been done previously in the ListView class, using the divider and dividerHeight parame

Answer 1

We can decorate the items using various decorators attached to the recyclerview such as the DividerItemDecoration:

Simply use the following ...taken from the answer by EyesClear

public class DividerItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

private static final int[] ATTRS = new int[]{android.R.attr.listDivider};

private Drawable mDivider;

/**
 * Default divider will be used
 */
public DividerItemDecoration(Context context) {
    final TypedArray styledAttributes = context.obtainStyledAttributes(ATTRS);
    mDivider = styledAttributes.getDrawable(0);
    styledAttributes.recycle();
}

/**
 * Custom divider will be used
 */
public DividerItemDecoration(Context context, int resId) {
    mDivider = ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, resId);
}

@Override
public void onDraw(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
    int left = parent.getPaddingLeft();
    int right = parent.getWidth() - parent.getPaddingRight();

    int childCount = parent.getChildCount();
    for (int i = 0; i < childCount; i++) {
        View child = parent.getChildAt(i);

        RecyclerView.LayoutParams params = (RecyclerView.LayoutParams) child.getLayoutParams();

        int top = child.getBottom() + params.bottomMargin;
        int bottom = top + mDivider.getIntrinsicHeight();

        mDivider.setBounds(left, top, right, bottom);
        mDivider.draw(c);
    }
}

} and then use the above as follows

RecyclerView.ItemDecoration itemDecoration = new DividerItemDecoration(this, DividerItemDecoration.VERTICAL_LIST);
recyclerView.addItemDecoration(itemDecoration);

This will display dividers between each item within the list as shown below:

And for those of who are looking for more details can check out this guide Using the RecyclerView _ CodePath Android Cliffnotes

Some answers here suggest the use of margins but the catch is that : If you add both top and bottom margins, they will appear both added between items and they will be too large. If you only add either, there will be no margin either at the top or the bottom of the whole list. If you add half of the distance at the top, half at the bottom, the outer margins will be too small.

Thus, the only aesthetically correct solution is the divider that the system knows where to apply properly: between items but not above or below items.

Please let me know of any doubts in the comments below :)