How can I get an Android TableLayout to fill the screen?

Question

I'm battling with Android's awful layout system. I'm trying to get a table to fill the screen (simple right?) but it's ridiculously hard.

I got it to work somehow in XML like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  <TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_width="fill_parent"> <TableRow android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"> <Button android:text="A" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"/> <Button android:text="B" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"/> </TableRow> <TableRow android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"> <Button android:text="C" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"/> <Button android:text="D" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"/> </TableRow> 

However I can not get it to work in Java. I've tried a million combinations of the LayoutParams, but nothing ever works. This is the best result I have which only fills the width of the screen, not the height:

    table = new TableLayout(this);     // Java. You suck.     TableLayout.LayoutParams lp = new TableLayout.LayoutParams(                                     ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,                                     ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);     table.setLayoutParams(lp); // This line has no effect! WHYYYY?!     table.setStretchAllColumns(true);     for (int r = 0; r < 2; ++r)     {         TableRow row = new TableRow(this);         for (int c = 0; c < 2; ++c)         {             Button btn = new Button(this);             btn.setText("A");             row.addView(btn);         }         table.addView(row);     } 

Obviously the Android documentation is no help. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

There are two mistakes in the above discussion.

1. It is possible to programatically set the weight by specifying TableLayout.LayoutParams and TableRow.LayoutParams and using the appropriate constructor, e.g.

   TableLayout.LayoutParams rowInTableLp = new TableLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, 1.0f); 

2. A widget must have the LayoutParams of its parent. Therefore, the rows must use TableLayout.LayoutParams.

This gives you the following working version of your initial code:

TableLayout table = new TableLayout(this); // Java. You succeed! FrameLayout.LayoutParams lp = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(         ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,         ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT); table.setLayoutParams(lp); table.setStretchAllColumns(true);  TableLayout.LayoutParams rowLp = new TableLayout.LayoutParams(         ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,         ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,         1.0f); TableRow.LayoutParams cellLp = new TableRow.LayoutParams(         ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,         ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT,         1.0f); for (int r = 0; r < 2; ++r) {     TableRow row = new TableRow(this);     for (int c = 0; c < 2; ++c)     {         Button btn = new Button(this);         btn.setText("A");         row.addView(btn, cellLp);     }     table.addView(row, rowLp); } setContentView(table); 

Thanks to Romain Guy's comment on Android developer's forum for the solution.

Answer 2

Finally worked out how to do this. Gave up on TableLayout and just used horizontal LinearLayouts inside a vertical one. The critical key is to set the weight. If you specify FILL_PARENT but with the default weight, it doesn't work:

LinearLayout buttonsView = new LinearLayout(this); buttonsView.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL); for (int r = 0; r < 6; ++r) {     LinearLayout row = new LinearLayout(this);     row.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL);     for (int c = 0; c < 4; ++c)     {         Button btn = new Button(this);         btn.setText("A");         LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);         lp.weight = 1.0f;         row.addView(btn, lp);     }     LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);     lp.weight = 1.0f;     buttonsView.addView(row, lp); }    ViewGroup.LayoutParams lp = new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT); setContentView(buttonsView, lp);