Question

I have the following basic layout

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

<LinearLayout
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/title_bar_background">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
        android:padding="10dp"
        android:text="HELLO WORLD" />

    </LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout>

It seems like the xml is correct but the text is aligned to the left. The textview takes up the entire width of the parent and the textview is set to be centered. Not sure what the problem is…

Answer 1

What’s happening is that since the the TextView is filling the whole width of the inner LinearLayout it is already in the horizontal center of the layout. When you use android:layout_gravity it places the widget, as a whole, in the gravity specified. Instead of placing the whole widget center what you’re really trying to do is place the content in the center which can be accomplished with android:gravity="center_horizontal" and the android:layout_gravity attribute can be removed.