Removing margin from spinner dropdown

Question

I have a spinner like the image below;

How can I remove the gap on the left x between the spinner and its dropdown - preferably a solution that works on API8 as I am trying to keep my app requirements as low as possible.

I had assumed this would be layout_margin in the spinners style, but after reading this question it seems thats not possible.

In my theme I have;

<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">        
        <item name="android:dropDownListViewStyle">@style/DropDownStyle</item>
    <item name="android:dropDownSelector">@style/DropDownStyle</item>                
</style>


<style name="DropDownTopStyle">

   <item name="android:clickable">true</item>
   <item name="android:background">@drawable/dropdowntop</item>

</style>

<style name="DropDownStyle">

   <item name="android:layout_width">fill_parent</item>
   <item name="android:layout_height">fill_parent</item> 
   <item name="android:layout_marginLeft">0dp</item> 
   <item name="android:layout_margin">0dp</item> 

   <item name="android:clickable">true</item>
   <item name="android:background">@drawable/dropdownback</item>
   <item name="android:popupBackground">@drawable/dropdownback</item>
   <item name="android:cacheColorHint">#FFF000</item>    
  </style>

Thanks, Thomas

Additional; I can see there might be a way to make a popup myself in code - if this is necessary, can I somehow get to the adapters popup view? (that is the list that it displays). Trying to recreate the whole adapters behavior from scratch seems a terrible way to go - but if I can get to that view and disable the normal popup behavior, then I could make my own popup without the annoying offset.

Answer 1

Seems you need to extend the Spinner View to make your own AlertDialog that shows the list of items, or in newer version (API 16+) you can use

android:dropDownHorizontalOffset="-8dp"

check the full details here: How to change the position of opened spinner?

Answer 2

Is what you want something like this?

If so, here is the code (works until API level 9) :

Activity:

public class MainActivity extends Activity
{
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        Spinner spinnerListOptions = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);
        ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapterListOptions = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(this, R.array.string_array,
            R.layout.spinner_item_top);
        adapterListOptions.setDropDownViewResource(R.layout.spinner_item_dropdown);
        spinnerListOptions.setAdapter(adapterListOptions);
    }
}

spinner_item_top.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="29dp"
      android:textSize="12sp"
      android:gravity="center">
</TextView>

spinner_item_dropdown.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="29dp"
      android:textSize="12sp"
      android:gravity="center">
</TextView>

activity_main.xml:

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

   <Spinner
           android:id="@+id/spinner"
           android:layout_width="wrap_content"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:layout_centerInParent="true"/>

</RelativeLayout>

strings.xml:

<resources>
<string-array name="string_array">
    <item>item 1</item>
    <item>item 2</item>
    <item>item 3</item>
</string-array>
</resources>