Android ListView padding for content without moving ListView height?

Question

I have a ListView with a bunch of items inside it. How do I make the top and bottom items have a top margin of 10dp for top item and bottom margin of 10dp for bottom item? Now I

Answer 1

The trick is to include android:clipToPadding="false" in your view definition, e.g.:

<ListView android:id="@+id/list"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingTop="16dip"
    android:paddingBottom="16dip"
    android:clipToPadding="false" />

Answer 2

Why not just check the position of the item relative to the size of your list:

Padding:

 public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent)
    {
         //recycle views and whatever else you normally would do goes here..
         //...
         //...

         if (position == 0){
            convertView.setPadding(0, 10, 0, 0); //padding on top for top item
         }
         else if (position == getCount() - 1){
            convertView.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 10); //padding on bottom for bottom item
         }
         else{
            convertView.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 0); //no padding
         }
}

For margins use

LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
lp.setMargins(left, top, right, bottom);
convertView.setLayoutParams(lp);

Ex:

public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent)
    {
             //recycle views and whatever else you normally would do goes here..
             //...
             //...
             LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,        LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
             if (position == 0){
                 lp.setMargins(0, 10, 0, 0); //margin on top for top item
             }
             else if (position == getCount() - 1){
                lp.setMargins(0, 10, 0, 10); //margin on bottom for bottom item
             }
             else{
                lp.setMargins(0, 0, 0, 0); //no margin
             }
             convertView.setLayoutParams(lp);
    }

this is provided you've implemented the getCount() method properly for your adapter.

Answer 3

You can get space at the top and bottom of your ListView, inside the scrolling region, by using headers and footers. Here's a quick example:

Define your filler view, which I named header_footer.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<View xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="10dp"/>

Now your onCreate method looks like this, assuming you named your ListView listView:

    final LayoutInflater inflater = 
        (LayoutInflater) getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
    final View headerFooter = inflater.inflate(R.layout.header_footer, null);
    listView.addFooterView(headerFooter);
    listView.addHeaderView(headerFooter);

And then set your adapter.