Question

I have a rather intense view layout. It makes uses of @drawable/shape.xml files and styles.

All the elements are matched properly

But, it will not compile unless I had a blank layout at the bottom – the compiler just says “Error parsing XML”

I add this and it works:

<LinearLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent" android:orientation="vertical" />
</LinearLayout>

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You are closing two LinearLayouts in your posted code.

1. This LinearLayout terminates itself with />:

   <LinearLayout 
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="match_parent" 
       android:orientation="vertical" 
       />
   

2. And this one terminates a previous LinearLayout:

   <LinearLayout> <!-- Somewhere above in your code -->
       ...
   </LinearLayout>
   

You can safely remove the empty <LinearLayout ... /> layout if you keep the closing </LinearLayout> tag. If this is not the answer, you need to post the entire XML so we can see what is happening.