Question

I’m trying to implement a vertical LinearLayout where there’s fixed width bar in the bottom, fixed width bar in the top, and the middle area occupies the rest of the space. In the naive implementation

<LinearLayout android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <View android:layout_height="50sp"/>

    <View android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>

    <View android:layout_height="50sp"/>
</LinearLayout>

The top bar is there, but the bottom bar is invisible. I guess the layout process encounters fill_parent on the middle view, and assigns the rest of vertical space to it.

Is there some kind of gravity/weight trick that would make layout recognize and display the bottom bar?

Answer 1

Try setting the middle portions height using weight, like this.

<View android:layout_height="50dp"/>

<View android:layout_height="0dp"
      android:layout_weight="1"
 />

<View android:layout_height="50dp"/>

This will draw the top and bottom first and than filling all ( weight = “1” ) REMAINING height with that view