Removing the left padding on an Android EditText

Question

The default EditText background seems to put ~ 4dp of padding on the left. This causes misalignment with other widgets.

I made a simple app to demonstrate. Screenshot:

Layout:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="match_parent"     android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"     android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"     android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"     android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"     android:orientation="vertical"     tools:context=".MainActivity">       <TextView         android:background="#00ff00"         android:text="@string/hello_world"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>     <EditText         android:layout_width="match_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:hint="HINT"         android:text="TEXT"         android:singleLine="true"/>     <TextView         android:background="#00ff00"         android:text="@string/hello_world"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>  </LinearLayout> 

Is there anyway to stop it from doing this?

Answer 1

One workaround is to use negative margin on the sides (-4dp)

This will only work when the EditText background matches the Layout background, and you don't have anything on the sides in the Layout that would be covered by the EditText