How to give layout weight in RelativeLayout?

Question

I have created a dialpad using LinearLayout. Here is the code

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="horizontal">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/textView"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:clickable="true"
                android:text="1" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/tv_two"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:clickable="true"
                android:text="2" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/tv_three"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="3" />
        </LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:orientation="horizontal">


    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="horizontal">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="4" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="5" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="6" />
        </LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:orientation="vertical">


    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="horizontal">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="7" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="8" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="9" />
        </LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="horizontal">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:clickable="true"
                android:text="*" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:clickable="true"
                android:text="0" />
        </LinearLayout>

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textSize="64dp"
                android:text="#" />
        </LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Which looks like this

Now i want the same in RelativeLayout, but i find layout_weight doesn't work in RelativeLayout. I also don't want to use LinearLayout inside RelativeLayout. Or is there any alternative which can work same like layout_weight works in LinearLayout but for RelativeLayout

Answer 1

You cannot use percentages to define the dimensions of a View inside a RelativeLayout. The best ways to do it is to use LinearLayout and weights, or a custom Layout.

Fore more information you can look at this question

Answer 2

If you want to stay with relative layout you can try to change the locations through the code. get the height and width of the outer layout using:

RelativeLayout rl = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.relative);
rl.getWidth();
rl.getHeight();

and then get the params of the layout you want to evenly distribute:

RelativeLayout.LayoutParams params = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(50, 50); //here i created a new one with size 50,50

now you can set params.leftMargin and params.topMargin the way you want with any calculation.

params.leftMargin = rl.getWidth()/4 ;

for example will set the new layout at the 1/4 of the screen width

Answer 3

RelativeLayout is not a good choice because it doesn't provide a way you to evenly distribute children the way LinearLayout does. If you want something other than nested LinearLayouts, you can try using GridLayout (not GridView).

Answer 4

You cannot use layout_weight in RelativeLayout. Looking over your XML, your current layout is poorly structured which will lead to poor performance. I suggest that you use either GridLayout or Use your current LinearLayout but instead of assigning a LinearLayout to each number/character you can do something like this instead (Only for first row, but you get the idea):

`

<LinearLayout 
    android:id="@+id/LL_topRow"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:weightSum="3"
    android:layout_margin="2dp">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="64sp"
        android:clickable="true"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="1" />


    <TextView
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="64sp"
        android:clickable="true"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="2" />


    <TextView
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="64sp"
        android:clickable="true"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="3" />

</LinearLayout>

<!-- Next LinearLayout Here for next row -->

`