[android] Android Recyclerview GridLayoutManager column spacing

How do you set the column spacing with a RecyclerView using a GridLayoutManager? Setting the margin/padding inside my layout has no effect.

The answer is


For StaggeredGridLayoutManager users, be careful, lots of answers here including the most voted one calculates the item column with below code:

int column = position % spanCount

which assumes that the 1st/3rd/5th/.. items are always located at left side and 2nd/4th/6th/.. items are always located at right side. Is this assumption always true? No.

Let's say your 1st item is 100dp high and 2nd is only 50dp, guess where is your 3rd item located, left or right?


for anyone like me, who want the best answer but in kotlin, here it is:

class GridItemDecoration(
    val spacing: Int,
    private val spanCount: Int,
    private val includeEdge: Boolean
) :
    RecyclerView.ItemDecoration() {

    /**
     * Applies padding to all sides of the [Rect], which is the container for the view
     */
    override fun getItemOffsets(
        outRect: Rect,
        view: View,
        parent: RecyclerView,
        state: RecyclerView.State
    ) {
        val position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) // item position
        val column = position % spanCount // item column
        if (includeEdge) {
            outRect.left =
                spacing - column * spacing / spanCount // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right =
                (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                outRect.top = spacing
            }
            outRect.bottom = spacing // item bottom
        } else {
            outRect.left =
                column * spacing / spanCount // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right =
                spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
            if (position >= spanCount) {
                outRect.top = spacing // item top
            }
        }
    }
}

plus if you want to get the number from dimens.xml and then convert it to raw pixel you can do it easily using getDimensionPixelOffset easily like this:

recyclerView.addItemDecoration(
                GridItemDecoration(
                    resources.getDimensionPixelOffset(R.dimen.h1),
                    3,
                    true
                )
            )

The following code will handle StaggeredGridLayoutManager, GridLayoutManager, and LinearLayoutManager.

public class SpacesItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int halfSpace;

    public SpacesItemDecoration(int space) {
        this.halfSpace = space / 2;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {

        if (parent.getPaddingLeft() != halfSpace) {
            parent.setPadding(halfSpace, halfSpace, halfSpace, halfSpace);
            parent.setClipToPadding(false);
        }

        outRect.top = halfSpace;
        outRect.bottom = halfSpace;
        outRect.left = halfSpace;
        outRect.right = halfSpace;
    }
}

Then use it

mRecyclerView.addItemDecoration(new SpacesItemDecoration(mMargin));

The selected answer is almost perfect, but depending on the space, items width can be not equal. (In my case it was critical). So i've ended up with this code which increases space a little bit, so items are all the same width.

   class GridSpacingItemDecoration(private val columnCount: Int, @Px preferredSpace: Int, private val includeEdge: Boolean): RecyclerView.ItemDecoration() {

    /**
     * In this algorithm space should divide by 3 without remnant or width of items can have a difference
     * and we want them to be exactly the same
     */
    private val space = if (preferredSpace % 3 == 0) preferredSpace else (preferredSpace + (3 - preferredSpace % 3))

    override fun getItemOffsets(outRect: Rect, view: View, parent: RecyclerView, state: RecyclerView.State?) {
        val position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view)

        if (includeEdge) {

            when {
                position % columnCount == 0 -> {
                    outRect.left = space
                    outRect.right = space / 3
                }
                position % columnCount == columnCount - 1 -> {
                    outRect.right = space
                    outRect.left = space / 3
                }
                else -> {
                    outRect.left = space * 2 / 3
                    outRect.right = space * 2 / 3
                }
            }

            if (position < columnCount) {
                outRect.top = space
            }

            outRect.bottom = space

        } else {

            when {
                position % columnCount == 0 -> outRect.right = space * 2 / 3
                position % columnCount == columnCount - 1 -> outRect.left = space * 2 / 3
                else -> {
                    outRect.left = space / 3
                    outRect.right = space / 3
                }
            }

            if (position >= columnCount) {
                outRect.top = space
            }
        }
    }

}

Here is a solution that doesn't require "spanCount" (number of columns) I use it because I use GridAutofitLayoutManager(calculates the number of columns according to the required cell size)

(beware that this will only work on GridLayoutManager)

public class GridSpacesItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {
    private final boolean includeEdge;
    private int spacing;


    public GridSpacesItemDecoration(int spacing, boolean includeEdge) {
        this.spacing = spacing;
        this.includeEdge = includeEdge;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        if (parent.getLayoutManager() instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
            GridLayoutManager layoutManager = (GridLayoutManager)parent.getLayoutManager();
            int spanCount = layoutManager.getSpanCount();
            int position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view); // item position
            int column = position % spanCount; // item column

            if (includeEdge) {
                outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
                outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)

                if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                    outRect.top = spacing;
                }
                outRect.bottom = spacing; // item bottom
            } else {
                outRect.left = column * spacing / spanCount; // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
                outRect.right = spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
                if (position >= spanCount) {
                    outRect.top = spacing; // item top
                }
            }

        }

    }
}

Here is the GridAutofitLayoutManager is anyone is interested:

public class GridAutofitLayoutManager extends GridLayoutManager {
    private int mColumnWidth;
    private boolean mColumnWidthChanged = true;

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(Context context, int columnWidth)
    {
        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1);
        setColumnWidth(checkedColumnWidth(context, columnWidth));
    }

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(Context context,int unit, int columnWidth)
    {
        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1);
        int pixColumnWidth = (int) TypedValue.applyDimension(unit, columnWidth, context.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        setColumnWidth(checkedColumnWidth(context, pixColumnWidth));
    }

    public GridAutofitLayoutManager(Context context, int columnWidth, int orientation, boolean reverseLayout)
    {
        /* Initially set spanCount to 1, will be changed automatically later. */
        super(context, 1, orientation, reverseLayout);
        setColumnWidth(checkedColumnWidth(context, columnWidth));
    }

    private int checkedColumnWidth(Context context, int columnWidth)
    {
        if (columnWidth <= 0)
        {
            /* Set default columnWidth value (48dp here). It is better to move this constant
            to static constant on top, but we need context to convert it to dp, so can't really
            do so. */
            columnWidth = (int) TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 48,
                    context.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
        return columnWidth;
    }

    public void setColumnWidth(int newColumnWidth)
    {
        if (newColumnWidth > 0 && newColumnWidth != mColumnWidth)
        {
            mColumnWidth = newColumnWidth;
            mColumnWidthChanged = true;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onLayoutChildren(RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, RecyclerView.State state)
    {
        int width = getWidth();
        int height = getHeight();
        if (mColumnWidthChanged && mColumnWidth > 0 && width > 0 && height > 0)
        {
            int totalSpace;
            if (getOrientation() == VERTICAL)
            {
                totalSpace = width - getPaddingRight() - getPaddingLeft();
            }
            else
            {
                totalSpace = height - getPaddingTop() - getPaddingBottom();
            }
            int spanCount = Math.max(1, totalSpace / mColumnWidth);
            setSpanCount(spanCount);

            mColumnWidthChanged = false;
        }
        super.onLayoutChildren(recycler, state);
    }
}

Finally:

mDevicePhotosView.setLayoutManager(new GridAutofitLayoutManager(getContext(), getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.item_size)));
mDevicePhotosView.addItemDecoration(new GridSpacesItemDecoration(Util.dpToPx(getContext(), 2),true));

Answers above have clarified ways to set margin handling GridLayoutManager and LinearLayoutManager.

But for StaggeredGridLayoutManager, Pirdad Sakhizada's answer says: "It might not work very well with StaggeredGridLayoutManager". It should be the problem about IndexOfSpan.

You can get it by this way:

private static class MyItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {
    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state);
        int index = ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams()).getSpanIndex();
    }
}

To made https://stackoverflow.com/a/29905000/1649371 (above) solution work I had to modify the following methods (and all subsequent calls)

@SuppressWarnings("all")
protected int getItemSpanSize(RecyclerView parent, View view, int childIndex) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanSize(childIndex);
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams()).isFullSpan() ? spanCount : 1;
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    }

    return -1;
}

@SuppressWarnings("all")
protected int getItemSpanIndex(RecyclerView parent, View view, int childIndex) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanIndex(childIndex, spanCount);
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams()).getSpanIndex();
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 0;
    }

    return -1;
}

yqritc's answer worked perfectly for me. I was using Kotlin however so here is the equivalent of that.

class ItemOffsetDecoration : RecyclerView.ItemDecoration  {

    // amount to add to padding
    private val _itemOffset: Int

    constructor(itemOffset: Int) {
        _itemOffset = itemOffset
    }

    constructor(@NonNull context: Context, @DimenRes itemOffsetId: Int){
       _itemOffset = context.resources.getDimensionPixelSize(itemOffsetId)
    }

    /**
     * Applies padding to all sides of the [Rect], which is the container for the view
     */
    override fun getItemOffsets(outRect: Rect, view: View, parent: RecyclerView,state: RecyclerView.State) {
        super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state)
        outRect.set(_itemOffset, _itemOffset, _itemOffset, _itemOffset)
    }
}

everything else is the same.


When using CardView for children problem with spaces between items can by solved by setting app:cardUseCompatPadding to true.

For bigger margins enlarge item elevation. CardElevation is optional (use default value).

<androidx.cardview.widget.CardView
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    app:cardUseCompatPadding="true"
    app:cardElevation="2dp">

If you have a toggle switch that toggles between list to grid, don't forget to call recyclerView.removeItemDecoration() before setting any new Item decoration. If not then the new calculations for the spacing would be incorrect.


Something like this.

        recyclerView.removeItemDecoration(gridItemDecorator)
        recyclerView.removeItemDecoration(listItemDecorator)
        if (showAsList){
            recyclerView.layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(this, LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false)
            recyclerView.addItemDecoration(listItemDecorator)
        }
        else{
            recyclerView.layoutManager = GridLayoutManager(this, spanCount)
            recyclerView.addItemDecoration(gridItemDecorator)
        }

Here is my modification of SpacesItemDecoration which can take numOfColums and space equally on top, bottom, left and right.

public class SpacesItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {
    private int space;
    private int mNumCol;

    public SpacesItemDecoration(int space, int numCol) {
        this.space = space;
        this.mNumCol=numCol;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view,
                               RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {

        //outRect.right = space;
        outRect.bottom = space;
        //outRect.left = space;

        //Log.d("ttt", "item position" + parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view));
        int position=parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view);

        if(mNumCol<=2) {
            if (position == 0) {
                outRect.left = space;
                outRect.right = space / 2;
            } else {
                if ((position % mNumCol) != 0) {
                    outRect.left = space / 2;
                    outRect.right = space;
                } else {
                    outRect.left = space;
                    outRect.right = space / 2;
                }
            }
        }else{
            if (position == 0) {
                outRect.left = space;
                outRect.right = space / 2;
            } else {
                if ((position % mNumCol) == 0) {
                    outRect.left = space;
                    outRect.right = space/2;
                } else if((position % mNumCol) == (mNumCol-1)){
                    outRect.left = space/2;
                    outRect.right = space;
                }else{
                    outRect.left=space/2;
                    outRect.right=space/2;
                }
            }

        }

        if(position<mNumCol){
            outRect.top=space;
        }else{
            outRect.top=0;
        }
        // Add top margin only for the first item to avoid double space between items
        /*
        if (parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view) == 0 ) {

        } else {
            outRect.top = 0;
        }*/
    }
}

and use below code on your logic.

recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new SpacesItemDecoration(spacingInPixels, numCol));

public class GridSpacingItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int spanCount;
    private int spacing;
    private boolean includeEdge;

    public GridSpacingItemDecoration(int spanCount, int spacing, boolean includeEdge) {
        this.spanCount = spanCount;
        this.spacing = spacing;
        this.includeEdge = includeEdge;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams params = (StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams();
        int column = params.getSpanIndex();

        if (includeEdge) {
            outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)

            if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                outRect.top = spacing;
            }
            outRect.bottom = spacing; // item bottom
        } else {
            outRect.left = column * spacing / spanCount; // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right = spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
            if (position >= spanCount) {
                outRect.top = spacing; // item top
            }
        }
    }
}

A little bit different from edwardaa's answer, the difference is how the column is determined, because in cases such as items with various heights, the column can not be determined by simply % spanCount


If you are using Header with GridLayoutManager use this code written in kotlin for spacing between the grids :

inner class SpacesItemDecoration(itemSpace: Int) : RecyclerView.ItemDecoration() {
    var space: Int = itemSpace

    override fun getItemOffsets(outRect: Rect?, view: View?, parent: RecyclerView?, state: RecyclerView.State?) {
        super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state)
        val position = parent!!.getChildAdapterPosition(view)
        val viewType = parent.adapter.getItemViewType(position)
       //check to not to set any margin to header item 
        if (viewType == GridViewAdapter.TYPE_HEADER) {
            outRect!!.top = 0
            outRect.left = 0
            outRect.right = 0
            outRect.bottom = 0
        } else {
            outRect!!.left = space
            outRect.right = space
            outRect.bottom = space

            if (parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view) == 0) {
                outRect.top = space
            } else {
                outRect.top = 0
            }
        }
    }
    }

And pass ItemDecoration to recyclerview as

mIssueGridView.addItemDecoration(SpacesItemDecoration(10))

There is a very simple and yet flexible solution for this problem using only XML which works on every LayoutManager.

Assume you want an equal spacing of X (8dp for example).

  1. Wrap your CardView item in another Layout

  2. Give the outer Layout a padding of X/2 (4dp)

  3. Make the outer Layout background transparent

...

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="200dp"
    android:layout_height="200dp"
    android:background="@android:color/transparent"
    android:padding="4dip">

    <android.support.v7.widget.CardView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">
    </android.support.v7.widget.CardView>

</LinearLayout>
  1. Give your RecyclerView a padding of X/2 (4dp)

...

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="4dp" />

and thats it. You have perfect spacing of X (8dp).


For those who have problems with staggeredLayoutManager (like https://imgur.com/XVutH5u)

recyclerView's methods:

getChildAdapterPosition(view)
getChildLayoutPosition(view)

sometimes return -1 as index so we might face troubles setting itemDecor. My solution is to override deprecated ItemDecoration's method:

public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, int itemPosition, RecyclerView parent)

instead of the newbie:

public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, State state)

like this:

recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new RecyclerView.ItemDecoration() {
            @Override
            public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, int itemPosition, RecyclerView parent) {
                TheAdapter.VH vh = (TheAdapter.VH) recyclerView.findViewHolderForAdapterPosition(itemPosition);
                View itemView = vh.itemView;    //itemView is the base view of viewHolder
                //or instead of the 2 lines above maybe it's possible to use  View itemView = layoutManager.findViewByPosition(itemPosition)  ... NOT TESTED

                StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams itemLayoutParams = (StaggeredGridLayoutManager.LayoutParams) itemView.getLayoutParams();

                int spanIndex = itemLayoutParams.getSpanIndex();

                if (spanIndex == 0)
                    ...
                else
                    ...
            }
        });

Seems to work for me so far :)


If you've scrolled far enough to reach this answer, I wrote a library for equal spacing which supports Vertical/Horizontal, LTR/RTL, LinearLayout/GridLayout manager and Edge inclusion. Its basically a single file, so you can copy paste that file into your code.

enter image description here

I tried to support StaggeredGridLayout but span index returned by this layout is not reliable. I would be glad to hear any suggestion for that.


This Link worked for me all situations you may try this.


The answers on for this question seem more complex than they should be. Here's my take on this.

Let's say you want 1dp spacing between grid items. Do the following:

  1. Add a padding of 0.5dp to each item
  2. Add a padding of -0.5dp to the RecycleView
  3. That's it! :)

class VerticalGridSpacingDecoration(private val spacing: Int) : RecyclerView.ItemDecoration() {

  override fun getItemOffsets(
    outRect: Rect,
    view: View,
    parent: RecyclerView,
    state: State
  ) {
    val layoutManager = parent.layoutManager as? GridLayoutManager
    if (layoutManager == null || layoutManager.orientation != VERTICAL) {
      return super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state)
    }

    val spanCount = layoutManager.spanCount
    val position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view)
    val column = position % spanCount
    with(outRect) {
      left = if (column == 0) 0 else spacing / 2
      right = if (column == spanCount.dec()) 0 else spacing / 2
      top = if (position < spanCount) 0 else spacing
    }
  }
}

The following is the step-by-step simple solution if you want the equal spacing around items and equal item sizes.

ItemOffsetDecoration

public class ItemOffsetDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int mItemOffset;

    public ItemOffsetDecoration(int itemOffset) {
        mItemOffset = itemOffset;
    }

    public ItemOffsetDecoration(@NonNull Context context, @DimenRes int itemOffsetId) {
        this(context.getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(itemOffsetId));
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent,
            RecyclerView.State state) {
        super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state);
        outRect.set(mItemOffset, mItemOffset, mItemOffset, mItemOffset);
    }
}

Implementation

In your source code, add ItemOffsetDecoration to your RecyclerView. Item offset value should be half size of the actual value you want to add as space between items.

mRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(new GridLayoutManager(context, NUM_COLUMNS);
ItemOffsetDecoration itemDecoration = new ItemOffsetDecoration(context, R.dimen.item_offset);
mRecyclerView.addItemDecoration(itemDecoration);

Also, set item offset value as padding for itsRecyclerView, and specify android:clipToPadding=false.

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
    android:id="@+id/recyclerview_grid"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:clipToPadding="false"
    android:padding="@dimen/item_offset"/>

This will work for RecyclerView with header as well.

public class GridSpacingItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int spanCount;
    private int spacing;
    private boolean includeEdge;
    private int headerNum;

    public GridSpacingItemDecoration(int spanCount, int spacing, boolean includeEdge, int headerNum) {
        this.spanCount = spanCount;
        this.spacing = spacing;
        this.includeEdge = includeEdge;
        this.headerNum = headerNum;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        int position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) - headerNum; // item position

        if (position >= 0) {
            int column = position % spanCount; // item column

            if (includeEdge) {
                outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
                outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)

                if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                    outRect.top = spacing;
                }
                outRect.bottom = spacing; // item bottom
            } else {
                outRect.left = column * spacing / spanCount; // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
                outRect.right = spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
                if (position >= spanCount) {
                    outRect.top = spacing; // item top
                }
            }
        } else {
            outRect.left = 0;
            outRect.right = 0;
            outRect.top = 0;
            outRect.bottom = 0;
        }
    }
    }
}

thanks edwardaa's answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/30701422/2227031

Another point to note is that:

if total spacing and total itemWidth are not equal to the screen width, you also need to adjust itemWidth, for example, on adapter onBindViewHolder method

Utils.init(_mActivity);
int width = 0;
if (includeEdge) {
    width = ScreenUtils.getScreenWidth() - spacing * (spanCount + 1);
} else {
    width = ScreenUtils.getScreenWidth() - spacing * (spanCount - 1);
}
int itemWidth = width / spanCount;

ConstraintLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = (ConstraintLayout.LayoutParams) holder.imageViewAvatar.getLayoutParams();
// suppose the width and height are the same
layoutParams.width = itemWidth;
layoutParams.height = itemWidth;
holder.imageViewAvatar.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);

If you want to FIXED the size of your RecyclerView item in all devices. You can do like this

public class GridSpacingItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int mSpanCount;
    private float mItemSize;

    public GridSpacingItemDecoration(int spanCount, int itemSize) {
        this.mSpanCount = spanCount;
        mItemSize = itemSize;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(final Rect outRect, final View view, RecyclerView parent,
            RecyclerView.State state) {
        final int position = parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view);
        final int column = position % mSpanCount;
        final int parentWidth = parent.getWidth();
        int spacing = (int) (parentWidth - (mItemSize * mSpanCount)) / (mSpanCount + 1);
        outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / mSpanCount;
        outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / mSpanCount;

        if (position < mSpanCount) {
            outRect.top = spacing;
        }
        outRect.bottom = spacing;
    }
}

recyclerview_item.xml

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="@dimen/recycler_view_item_width" 
    ...
    >
    ...
</LinearLayout>

dimens.xml

 <dimen name="recycler_view_item_width">60dp</dimen>

Activity

int numberOfColumns = 3;
mRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(new GridLayoutManager(this, numberOfColumns));
mRecyclerView.setAdapter(...);
mRecyclerView.addItemDecoration(new GridSpacingItemDecoration(3,
        getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.recycler_view_item_width)));

enter image description here enter image description here


Following code works well, and each column has same width:

public class GridSpacingItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int spanCount;
    private int spacing;
    private boolean includeEdge;

    public GridSpacingItemDecoration(int spanCount, int spacing, boolean includeEdge) {
        this.spanCount = spanCount;
        this.spacing = spacing;
        this.includeEdge = includeEdge;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        int position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view); // item position
        int column = position % spanCount; // item column

        if (includeEdge) {
            outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)

            if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                outRect.top = spacing;
            }
            outRect.bottom = spacing; // item bottom
        } else {
            outRect.left = column * spacing / spanCount; // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right = spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
            if (position >= spanCount) {
                outRect.top = spacing; // item top
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage

1. no edge

enter image description here

int spanCount = 3; // 3 columns
int spacing = 50; // 50px
boolean includeEdge = false;
recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new GridSpacingItemDecoration(spanCount, spacing, includeEdge));

2. with edge

enter image description here

int spanCount = 3; // 3 columns
int spacing = 50; // 50px
boolean includeEdge = true;
recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new GridSpacingItemDecoration(spanCount, spacing, includeEdge));

Copied @edwardaa provided code and I make it perfect to support RTL:

public class GridSpacingItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {
    private int spanCount;
    private int spacing;
    private boolean includeEdge;
    private int headerNum;
    private boolean isRtl = TextUtilsCompat.getLayoutDirectionFromLocale(Locale.getDefault()) == ViewCompat.LAYOUT_DIRECTION_RTL;

    public GridSpacingItemDecoration(int spanCount, int spacing, boolean includeEdge, int headerNum) {
        this.spanCount = spanCount;
        this.spacing = spacing;
        this.includeEdge = includeEdge;
        this.headerNum = headerNum;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        int position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view) - headerNum; // item position
        if (position >= 0) {
            int column = position % spanCount; // item column
            if(isRtl) {
                column = spanCount - 1 - column;
            }
            if (includeEdge) {
                outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
                outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)

                if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                    outRect.top = spacing;
                }
                outRect.bottom = spacing; // item bottom
            } else {
                outRect.left = column * spacing / spanCount; // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
                outRect.right = spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
                if (position >= spanCount) {
                    outRect.top = spacing; // item top
                }
            }
        } else {
            outRect.left = 0;
            outRect.right = 0;
            outRect.top = 0;
            outRect.bottom = 0;
        }
    }
}

A Kotlin version I made based on the great answer by edwardaa

class RecyclerItemDecoration(private val spanCount: Int, private val spacing: Int) : RecyclerView.ItemDecoration() {

  override fun getItemOffsets(outRect: Rect, view: View, parent: RecyclerView, state: RecyclerView.State) {

    val spacing = Math.round(spacing * parent.context.resources.displayMetrics.density)
    val position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view)
    val column = position % spanCount

    outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount
    outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount

    outRect.top = if (position < spanCount) spacing else 0
    outRect.bottom = spacing
  }

}

There is only one easy solution, that you can remember and implement wherever needed. No bugs, no crazy calculations. Put margin to the card / item layout and put the same size as padding to the RecyclerView:

item_layout.xml

<CardView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:margin="10dp">

activity_layout.xml

<RecyclerView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:padding="10dp"/>

UPDATE: enter image description here


I ended up doing it like that for my RecyclerView with GridLayoutManager and HeaderView.

In the code below I set a 4dp space between every item(2dp around every single item and 2dp padding around the whole recyclerview).

layout.xml

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
    android:id="@+id/recycleview"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="2dp" />

fragment/activity

GridLayoutManager manager = new GridLayoutManager(getContext(), 3);
recyclerView.setLayoutManager(manager);
int spacingInPixels = Utils.dpToPx(2);
recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new SpacesItemDecoration(spacingInPixels));

SpaceItemDecoration.java

public class SpacesItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int mSpacing;

    public SpacesItemDecoration(int spacing) {
        mSpacing = spacing;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView recyclerView, RecyclerView.State state) {
        outRect.left = mSpacing;
        outRect.top = mSpacing;
        outRect.right = mSpacing;
        outRect.bottom = mSpacing;
    }
}

Utils.java

public static int dpToPx(final float dp) {
    return Math.round(dp * (Resources.getSystem().getDisplayMetrics().xdpi / DisplayMetrics.DENSITY_DEFAULT));
}

Try this. It'll take care of equal spacing all around. Works both with List, Grid, and StaggeredGrid.

Edited

The updated code should handle most of the corner cases with spans, orientation, etc. Note that if using setSpanSizeLookup() with GridLayoutManager, setting setSpanIndexCacheEnabled() is recommended for performance reasons.

Note, it seems that with StaggeredGrid, there's seems to be a bug where the index of the children gets wacky and hard to track so the code below might not work very well with StaggeredGridLayoutManager.

public class ListSpacingDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

  private static final int VERTICAL = OrientationHelper.VERTICAL;

  private int orientation = -1;
  private int spanCount = -1;
  private int spacing;
  private int halfSpacing;


  public ListSpacingDecoration(Context context, @DimenRes int spacingDimen) {

    spacing = context.getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(spacingDimen);
    halfSpacing = spacing / 2;
  }

  public ListSpacingDecoration(int spacingPx) {

    spacing = spacingPx;
    halfSpacing = spacing / 2;
  }

  @Override
  public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {

    super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state);

    if (orientation == -1) {
        orientation = getOrientation(parent);
    }

    if (spanCount == -1) {
        spanCount = getTotalSpan(parent);
    }

    int childCount = parent.getLayoutManager().getItemCount();
    int childIndex = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view);

    int itemSpanSize = getItemSpanSize(parent, childIndex);
    int spanIndex = getItemSpanIndex(parent, childIndex);

    /* INVALID SPAN */
    if (spanCount < 1) return;

    setSpacings(outRect, parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex);
  }

  protected void setSpacings(Rect outRect, RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    outRect.top = halfSpacing;
    outRect.bottom = halfSpacing;
    outRect.left = halfSpacing;
    outRect.right = halfSpacing;

    if (isTopEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.top = spacing;
    }

    if (isLeftEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.left = spacing;
    }

    if (isRightEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.right = spacing;
    }

    if (isBottomEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.bottom = spacing;
    }
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getTotalSpan(RecyclerView parent) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanCount();
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanCount();
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    }

    return -1;
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getItemSpanSize(RecyclerView parent, int childIndex) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanSize(childIndex);
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    }

    return -1;
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getItemSpanIndex(RecyclerView parent, int childIndex) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanIndex(childIndex, spanCount);
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return childIndex % spanCount;
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 0;
    }

    return -1;
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getOrientation(RecyclerView parent) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return ((LinearLayoutManager) mgr).getOrientation();
    } else if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getOrientation();
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager) mgr).getOrientation();
    }

    return VERTICAL;
  }

  protected boolean isLeftEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return spanIndex == 0;

    } else {

        return (childIndex == 0) || isFirstItemEdgeValid((childIndex < spanCount), parent, childIndex);
    }
  }

  protected boolean isRightEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return (spanIndex + itemSpanSize) == spanCount;

    } else {

        return isLastItemEdgeValid((childIndex >= childCount - spanCount), parent, childCount, childIndex, spanIndex);
    }
  }

  protected boolean isTopEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return (childIndex == 0) || isFirstItemEdgeValid((childIndex < spanCount), parent, childIndex);

    } else {

        return spanIndex == 0;
    }
  }

  protected boolean isBottomEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return isLastItemEdgeValid((childIndex >= childCount - spanCount), parent, childCount, childIndex, spanIndex);

    } else {

        return (spanIndex + itemSpanSize) == spanCount;
    }
  }

  protected boolean isFirstItemEdgeValid(boolean isOneOfFirstItems, RecyclerView parent, int childIndex) {

    int totalSpanArea = 0;
    if (isOneOfFirstItems) {
        for (int i = childIndex; i >= 0; i--) {
            totalSpanArea = totalSpanArea + getItemSpanSize(parent, i);
        }
    }

    return isOneOfFirstItems && totalSpanArea <= spanCount;
  }

  protected boolean isLastItemEdgeValid(boolean isOneOfLastItems, RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int spanIndex) {

    int totalSpanRemaining = 0;
    if (isOneOfLastItems) {
        for (int i = childIndex; i < childCount; i++) {
            totalSpanRemaining = totalSpanRemaining + getItemSpanSize(parent, i);
        }
    }

    return isOneOfLastItems && (totalSpanRemaining <= spanCount - spanIndex);
  }
}

Hope it helps.


This is what finally ended up working for me

        binding.rows.addItemDecoration(object: RecyclerView.ItemDecoration(){
            val px = resources.getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.grid_spacing)
            val spanCount = 2
            override fun getItemOffsets(outRect: Rect, view: View, parent: RecyclerView, state: RecyclerView.State) {
                val index = parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view)
                val isLeft = (index % spanCount == 0)
                outRect.set(
                    if (isLeft) px else px/2,
                    0,
                    if (isLeft) px/2 else px,
                    px
                )
            }
        })

Since there are only 2 columns for me (val spanCount = 2), I can do with just isLeft. If there were > 2 columns, then I'd need a isMiddle as well, and the value for both sides would be px/2.

I wish there was a way to get the app:spanCount from directly from the RecyclerView, but I don't believe there is.


Examples related to android

Under what circumstances can I call findViewById with an Options Menu / Action Bar item? How to implement a simple scenario the OO way My eclipse won't open, i download the bundle pack it keeps saying error log getting " (1) no such column: _id10 " error java doesn't run if structure inside of onclick listener Cannot retrieve string(s) from preferences (settings) strange error in my Animation Drawable how to put image in a bundle and pass it to another activity FragmentActivity to Fragment A failure occurred while executing com.android.build.gradle.internal.tasks

Examples related to gridview

Simple Android grid example using RecyclerView with GridLayoutManager (like the old GridView) Android Recyclerview GridLayoutManager column spacing Get the cell value of a GridView row add new row in gridview after binding C#, ASP.net Check if list is empty in C# How to refresh Gridview after pressed a button in asp.net Putting GridView data in a DataTable How to get row data by clicking a button in a row in an ASP.NET gridview Change header text of columns in a GridView Twitter Bootstrap and ASP.NET GridView

Examples related to android-recyclerview

Failed to resolve: com.android.support:cardview-v7:26.0.0 android CardView background color always white Changing background color of selected item in recyclerview Simple Android grid example using RecyclerView with GridLayoutManager (like the old GridView) Simple Android RecyclerView example Android Horizontal RecyclerView scroll Direction Margin between items in recycler view Android How to add a recyclerView inside another recyclerView RecyclerView - Get view at particular position Recyclerview inside ScrollView not scrolling smoothly

Examples related to gridlayoutmanager

Simple Android grid example using RecyclerView with GridLayoutManager (like the old GridView) Android Recyclerview GridLayoutManager column spacing