Question

I want to put a scrollable EditText above a row of buttons such that the text component fills all the vertical space left free by the buttons. This is proving surprisingly difficult, not least because the ADT is buggy: it suggests that this layout will do and it does in Eclipse but not in the real application!

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <EditText android:id="@android:id/text1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_above="@+id/view1"/>
    <LinearLayout android:id="@id/view1"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true">
        <!-- buttons go here -->
    </LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

In this layout the text stretches to the full screen, as you might expect, i.e., it goes under the button but the ADT graphical layout tool shows it stopping just above the button. OTOH if you give it a wrap_content height then of course it doesn’t stretch. layout_weight is of no help either.

So, is there a way? You must test your answer in the emulator or on a real device, not merely in Eclipse.

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Precision: what makes me think this is not working and that the text widget extends under the buttons is the shape of the scrollbar at the bottom (see pic. below): it should be rounded at both ends and instead it looks like the bottom extends farther. If you compares its shape at the bottom with the shape it has at the top (which unfortunately I was unable to capture: it disappears too fast) it is very clearly different. OTOH the text widget boundary looks as expected. This is very confusing. Maybe just a minor bug in Android?

Answer 1

try this code :

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

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editText1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:inputType="textMultiLine" >

        <requestFocus></requestFocus>
    </EditText>
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/linearLayout1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent">
        <Button
            android:text="Button"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/button1"
            android:layout_width="0dp"></Button>
        <Button
            android:text="Button"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/button2"
            android:layout_width="0dp"></Button>
        <Button
            android:text="Button"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/button3"
            android:layout_width="0dp"></Button>
    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>