What does LayoutInflater class do? (in Android) [closed]

Question

I am unable to understand the use of LayoutInflater in Android.

What exactly is the role of LayoutInflater, and how to use it for a simple Android app?

Answer 1

What is Layoutinflater ?

LayoutInflater is a class (wrapper of some implementation or service), you can get one:

LayoutInflater li = LayoutInflater.from(context); 

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How to use Layoutinflater ?

You feed it an XML layout file. You need not give full file address, just its resource id, generated for you automatically in R class. For example, a layout file which look like:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"               android:orientation="vertical"               android:layout_width="fill_parent"               android:layout_height="fill_parent">      <TextView             android:id="@+id/text_view"             android:layout_width="fill_parent"             android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>  </LinearLayout> 

saved as /res/layout/my_layout.xml.

You give it to LayoutInflater like:

  View v = li.inflate(R.layout.my_layout,null,false); 

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What did Layout Inflater do ?

That v is now a LinearLayout object ^{(LinearLayout extends View)} , and contains a TextView object, arranged in exact order and with all properties set, as we described in the XML above.

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TL;DR: A LayoutInflater reads an XML in which we describe how we want a UI layout to be. It then creates actual Viewobjects for UI from that XML.