What s the difference between fill parent and wrap content

Question

In Android  when layout out widgets  what s the difference between fill parent  match parent in API Level 8 and higher  and wrap content   Is there any documentation where you can point to  I m interested in understanding it very well

User · Accepted Answer

Either attribute can be applied to View s  visual control  horizontal or vertical size  It s used to set a View or Layouts size based on either it s contents or the size of it s parent layout rather than explicitly specifying a dimension   fill parent  deprecated and renamed MATCH PARENT in API Level 8 and higher   Setting the layout of a widget to fill parent will force it to expand to take up as much space as is available within the layout element it s been placed in  It s roughly equivalent of setting the dockstyle of a Windows Form Control to Fill    Setting a top level layout or control to fill parent will force it to take up the whole screen   wrap content  Setting a View s size to wrap content will force it to expand only far enough to contain the values  or child controls  it contains  For controls -- like text boxes  TextView  or images  ImageView  -- this will wrap the text or image being shown  For layout elements it will resize the layout to fit the controls   layouts added as its children   It s roughly the equivalent of setting a Windows Form Control s Autosize property to True   Online Documentation  There s some details in the Android code documentation here

User · Answer

fill parent  deprecated    match parent The border of the child view expands to match the border of the parent view   wrap content The border of the child view wraps snugly around its own content   Here are some images to make things more clear  The green and red are TextViews  The white is a LinearLayout showing through     Every View  a TextView  an ImageView  a Button  etc   needs to set the width and the height of the view  In the xml layout file  that might look like this   android layout width  wrap content  android layout height  match parent    Besides setting the width and height to match parent or wrap content  you could also set them to some absolute value   android layout width  100dp  android layout height  200dp    Generally that is not as good  though  because it is not as flexible for different sized devices  After you have understood wrap content and match parent  the next thing to learn is layout weight   See also   What does android layout weight mean  Difference between a View s Padding and Margin Gravity vs layout gravity   XML for above images  Vertical LinearLayout   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt LinearLayout xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android                android orientation  vertical                android layout width  match parent                android layout height  match parent  gt        lt TextView         android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  wrap content          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  width wrap height wrap          android background   c5e1b0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  match parent          android layout height  wrap content          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  width match height wrap          android background   f6c0c0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  match parent          android layout height  match parent          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  width match height match          android background   c5e1b0   gt    lt  LinearLayout gt    Horizontal LinearLayout   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt LinearLayout xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android                android orientation  horizontal                android layout width  match parent                android layout height  match parent  gt        lt TextView         android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  wrap content          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  WrapWrap          android background   c5e1b0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  match parent          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  WrapMatch          android background   f6c0c0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  match parent          android layout height  match parent          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  MatchMatch          android background   c5e1b0   gt    lt  LinearLayout gt    Note  The explanation in this answer assumes there is no margin or padding  But even if there is  the basic concept is still the same  The view border spacing is just adjusted by the value of the margin or padding

User · Answer

fill parent  deprecated    match parent The border of the child view expands to match the border of the parent view   wrap content The border of the child view wraps snugly around its own content   Here are some images to make things more clear  The green and red are TextViews  The white is a LinearLayout showing through     Every View  a TextView  an ImageView  a Button  etc   needs to set the width and the height of the view  In the xml layout file  that might look like this   android layout width  wrap content  android layout height  match parent    Besides setting the width and height to match parent or wrap content  you could also set them to some absolute value   android layout width  100dp  android layout height  200dp    Generally that is not as good  though  because it is not as flexible for different sized devices  After you have understood wrap content and match parent  the next thing to learn is layout weight   See also   What does android layout weight mean  Difference between a View s Padding and Margin Gravity vs layout gravity   XML for above images  Vertical LinearLayout   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt LinearLayout xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android                android orientation  vertical                android layout width  match parent                android layout height  match parent  gt        lt TextView         android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  wrap content          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  width wrap height wrap          android background   c5e1b0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  match parent          android layout height  wrap content          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  width match height wrap          android background   f6c0c0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  match parent          android layout height  match parent          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  width match height match          android background   c5e1b0   gt    lt  LinearLayout gt    Horizontal LinearLayout   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt LinearLayout xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android                android orientation  horizontal                android layout width  match parent                android layout height  match parent  gt        lt TextView         android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  wrap content          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  WrapWrap          android background   c5e1b0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  match parent          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  WrapMatch          android background   f6c0c0   gt        lt TextView         android layout width  match parent          android layout height  match parent          android textAppearance   android attr textAppearanceMedium          android text  MatchMatch          android background   c5e1b0   gt    lt  LinearLayout gt    Note  The explanation in this answer assumes there is no margin or padding  But even if there is  the basic concept is still the same  The view border spacing is just adjusted by the value of the margin or padding

User · Answer

fill parent     A component is arranged layout for the fill parent will be mandatory to expand to fill the layout unit members  as much as possible in the space  This is consistent with the dockstyle property of the Windows control  A top set layout or control to fill parent will force it to take up the entire screen    wrap content  Set up a view of the size of wrap content will be forced to view is expanded to show all the content  The TextView and ImageView controls  for example  is set to wrap content will display its entire internal text and image  Layout elements will change the size according to the content  Set up a view of the size of Autosize attribute wrap content roughly equivalent to set a Windows control for True    For details Please Check out this link   http   developer android com reference android view ViewGroup LayoutParams html

User · Answer

fill parent     A component is arranged layout for the fill parent will be mandatory to expand to fill the layout unit members  as much as possible in the space  This is consistent with the dockstyle property of the Windows control  A top set layout or control to fill parent will force it to take up the entire screen    wrap content  Set up a view of the size of wrap content will be forced to view is expanded to show all the content  The TextView and ImageView controls  for example  is set to wrap content will display its entire internal text and image  Layout elements will change the size according to the content  Set up a view of the size of Autosize attribute wrap content roughly equivalent to set a Windows control for True    For details Please Check out this link   http   developer android com reference android view ViewGroup LayoutParams html

User · Answer

fill parent will make the width or height of the element to be as large as the parent element  in other words  the container  wrap content will make the width or height be as large as needed to contain the elements within it    Click here for ANDROID DOC Reference

User · Answer

fill parent will make the width or height of the element to be as large as the parent element  in other words  the container  wrap content will make the width or height be as large as needed to contain the elements within it    Click here for ANDROID DOC Reference

[android] What's the difference between fill_parent and wrap_content?

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