Limit height of ListView on Android

Question

I want to show a button under a ListView. Problem is, if the ListView gets extended (items added...), the button is pushed out of the screen.

Answer 1

RelativeLayout is a solution, if you don't want the button to stay too close to the bottom you can add margins (padding a button would break it because it uses a 9-patch background, and it sets its own padding).

It would be the same if you used a LinearLayout: the way to achieve what you want is to set the ListView to a height=0 and weight=1, and for the button height=wrap_content and weight=0. (setting both to wrap_content, as user639183 said, would not limit ListView's height).

Answer 2

On your last edit, you just have to also add android:layout_above="@+id/butt1" in your ListView code.

And to show you(and everybody here who tried an answer earlier) that you really don't need to use more than one RelativeLayout, here is your corrected code:

   <RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="@drawable/bkg">
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView1"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true">
    </TextView>
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_below="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="TextView2"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true">
    </TextView>
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/butt1"
        android:text="string/string3"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true">
    </Button>
    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/android:list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="2dip"
        android:layout_marginBottom="2dip"
        android:drawSelectorOnTop="false"
        android:visibility="visible"
        android:layout_below="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_above="@+id/butt1" />
    </RelativeLayout>

and the result, using some random list:

Answer 3

Using LinearLayout, set the height of your ListView and Button to wrap_content and add a weight=1 to ListView. This should work as you want.
And yes, set the layout_gravity of the Button to bottom

Answer 4

I solved this by putting the ListView inside a ScrollView. Lint didn't like it, but by adding a minHeight and setting the fillViewport to true, I have a nice result.

    <ScrollView 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="1dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="1dp"
        android:minHeight="100dp"
        android:fillViewport="true"
        android:fadeScrollbars="false"
        android:paddingTop="2dp" 
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:scrollbarAlwaysDrawVerticalTrack="true" >

        <ListView
            android:id="@+id/workoutAElistRoutines"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="fill_vertical"
            android:background="@drawable/dialog_inner_border_tan"
            android:choiceMode="singleChoice"
            android:orientation="vertical"
            android:paddingLeft="3dp"
            android:paddingRight="3dp" >

        </ListView>
    </ScrollView>