How do I center text horizontally and vertically in a TextView?

R

Ryan M

I'm assuming you're using XML layout.

<TextView  
    android:layout_width="match_parent" 
    android:layout_height="match_parent" 
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@string/**yourtextstring**"
/>

You can also use gravity center_vertical or center_horizontal according to your need.

As @stealthcopter commented, in java: .setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);.

And for Kotlin users, .gravity = Gravity.CENTER

This doesn't work when used with a RelativeLayout where the layout's height & width are set to wrap_content

@Rob, if the width and height are wrap_content, then technically, the text is already centered.

If I want to align TextView relative to another view, but it's text centered in itself?

This isn't working for me (android:gravity="center"). It still shows at far left of screen. :(

Not to be confused with android:layout_gravity="center", which does something else.

d

darryn.ten

android:gravity="center"

This will do the trick

The textview has to be match_parent or fill_parent for this to work. If its wrap content, then it will not center.

@KalelWade: centering text in a textview with wrap_content makes no sense at all. Maybe you're thinking of centering a textview in a parent view, in which case, you simiply put this line in the parent.

@Mooing Duck Thus the reason to not use wrap content - it doesn't make sense. But when you're either coping and pasting or just rushing, you may not put two and two together. That's why I mentioned it.

if TextView with width and height equal "wrap_content" is inside LinearLayout with width and height "match_parent" then you need to set the layout_gravity of Linear_layout.

@MooingDuck, when height is "wrap_content" and gravity is "center_vertical", it draws in Design (preview) as centered, but in a device it is positioned to a top. So make height "match_parent" and set gravity to "center_vertical" or "center".

z

zeevb

You can also set it up dynamically using:

textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);

Or just textview.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);

What is the criteria for judgement to decide which way to choose, to write in xml or write in Java file?

@Kenju if you want it to be easily editable and the value won't change during runtime: XML. If you must change the value realtime (for example, change the alignment when the user presses a button) then you can only do it via Java.

@GustavoMaciel so, basically xml unless it needs to be modified dynamically ... Now i got it. Thanks for your simple and useful answer !

s

sth

android:layout_centerInParent="true"

This works when used with a RelativeLayout where the layout's height & width are set to wrap_content.

This centers the TextView, not the text in it.

This does NOT work when there is word-wrap in the TextView. The text will be full-width and multi-line AND LEFT-justified within the TextView. It will appear left-justified on the display. You should use "gravity" as specified in the other answers.

Z

Zapnologica

You can also use the combination:

android:gravity="left|center"

Then, if textview width is more than "fill_parent" the text will still be aligned to left (not centered as with gravity set only to "center").

a

ayz4sci

Apply gravity:

TextView txtView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtView);
txtView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);

For vertical:

txtView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL);

In XML:

<TextView      
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@string/Hello_World"        
/>

P

Piyush

There are two ways of doing this.

The first in the XML code. You need to pay attention at the Gravity Attribute. You also can find this attribute in the Graphic Editor; it may be easier than the XML EDITOR.

<TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
    android:text="Your Text"
/>

For your specific scenario, the values of gravity will be:

center_vertical|center_horizontal

In the graphical editor you will find all the possible values, even see their results.

P

Peter Mortensen

If you are using TableLayout make sure to set the gravity of the TableRows to center, too. Otherwise it will not work. At least it didn't work with me until I set the gravity of the TableRow to center.

For example, like this:

<TableRow android:id="@+id/tableRow2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:gravity="center">        
    <TextView android:text="@string/chf" android:id="@+id/tv_chf" android:layout_weight="2" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:gravity="center"></TextView>        
</TableRow>

Interesting. Have to check if that is valid for LinearLayout (the TableRow parent) as well.

P

Peter Mortensen

You need to set TextView Gravity (Center Horizontal & Center Vertical) like this:

android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"

and

android:layout_centerVertical="true"

And dynamically using:

textview.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);

Code semantics is wrong. Replace layout_centerhorizontal and layout_centervertical by layout_centerHorizontal and layout_centerVertical ("H" and "V" to uppercase, otherwise it wont work).

layout_* tells the View's parent where it wants to be. Without layout_* tells the View how to place its components

a

anthropomo

In my opinion,

android:gravity="center"

is better than,

android:layout_centerInParent="true"

which is better than,

android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"

at least for formatting text.

v

valerybodak

For Linear Layout: In XML use something like this

<TextView  
    android:id="@+id/textView1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
    android:text="Your Text goes here"
/>

To do this at run time use something like this in your activity

TextView textView1 =(TextView)findViewById(R.id.texView1);
textView1.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);

For Relative Layout: in XML use some thing like this

<TextView  
    android:id="@+id/textView1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"
    android:text="Your Text goes here"
/>

To do this at run time use something like this in your activity

TextView textView1 =(TextView)findViewById(R.id.texView1);
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = RelativeLayout.LayoutParams)textView1.getLayoutParams();
layoutParams.addRule(RelativeLayout.CENTER_IN_PARENT, RelativeLayout.TRUE);
textView1.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);

P

Peter Mortensen

Use in the XML file.

Layout file

<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@string/stringtext"/>

or:

Use this inside the Java class

TextView textView =(TextView)findViewById(R.id.texviewid);
textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);

佚

佚名

Use this for relative layout

android:layout_centerInParent="true"

and for other layout

android:gravity="center"

N

Naveen Kumar Sangwan

If the TextView's height and width are wrap content then the text within the TextView always be centered. But if the TextView's width is match_parent and height is match_parent or wrap_content then you have to write the below code:

For RelativeLayout:

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

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center" 
        android:text="Hello World" />

</RelativeLayout>

For LinearLayout:

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

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="Hello World" />

</LinearLayout>

n

noob

While using gravity works for TextView, there's an alternate method implemented in API level 17 -

textView.setTextAlignment(View.TEXT_ALIGNMENT_CENTER);

Don't know the difference, but it works too. However only for API level 17 or higher.

The difference is described here: stackoverflow.com/questions/16196444/…

This will truly center the text in the TextView. If you just use gravity, there's a bit of trailing padding depending on what the text is.... If you have a little circle badge with text in the center, for instance, you can see a very obvious difference.

C

Catalina

In RelativeLayout, it will be nice with it.

And another Button and anything else you can add.

The following works nicely for me.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#ff314859"
    android:paddingLeft="16dp"
    android:paddingRight="16dp">
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/txt_logo"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="your text here"
        android:textSize="30dp"
        android:gravity="center"/>

        ...other button or anything else...

</RelativeLayout>

C

Chathura Wijesinghe

Use android:textAlignment="center"

https://i.stack.imgur.com/l0Fzk.png

       <TextView
        android:text="HOW WAS\nYOUR\nDAY?"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textAlignment="center"
        android:id="@+id/textView5"
         />

textAlignment="center" won't do the job until the TextView has dimensions to match_parent

@SAurabh above example is working without any issues.

is it working without gravity to parent or layout gravity in itself? It won't Text alignment will align the text within its view bounds so until the textView takes match_parent in this case it it won't seem like this without gravity in its parent layout or layout_gravity in itself

U

User1

Easiest way (which is surprisingly only mentioned in comments, hence why I am posting as an answer) is:

textview.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER)

P

Piyush

You can just set the gravity of your textview into CENTER.

A

Alpesh Sorathiya

TextView gravity works as per your parent layout.

LinearLayout:

If you use LinearLayout then you will find two gravity attribute android:gravity & android:layout_gravity

android:gravity : represent layout potion of internal text of TextView while android:layout_gravity : represent TextView position in parent view.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/9cxnM.png

If you want to set text horizontally & vertically center then use below code this

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="300dp"
    android:background="@android:color/background_light"
    android:layout_height="300dp">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:text="Hello World!"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
</LinearLayout>

RelativeLayout:

Using RelativeLayout you can use below property in TextView

android:gravity="center" for text center in TextView.

android:gravity="center_horizontal" inner text if you want horizontally centered.

android:gravity="center_vertical" inner text if you want vertically centered.

android:layout_centerInParent="true" if you want TextView in center position of parent view. android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" if you want TextView in horizontally center of parent view. android:layout_centerVertical="true" if you want TextView in vertically center of parent view.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="300dp"
    android:background="@android:color/background_light"
    android:layout_height="300dp">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:text="Hello World!"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    />
</RelativeLayout>

Btw, any reason you rollbacked to the previous revision? The revision that you reverted is a good practice so that as what the editor has mentioned can help text editors with encoding.

Thank you for android:gravity="center_horizontal" and android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"

d

dyslexicanaboko

If you are trying to center text on a TableRow in a TableLayout, here is how I achieved this:

<TableRow android:id="@+id/rowName"
          android:layout_width="wrap_content"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:padding="5dip" >
    <TextView android:id="@+id/lblSomeLabel"
              android:layout_width="fill_parent"
              android:layout_height="fill_parent"
              android:gravity="center"
              android:layout_width="0dp"
              android:layout_weight="100"
              android:text="Your Text Here" />
</TableRow>

N

Niranjan

If you are using Relative Layout:

  <TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/stringname"
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"/>

If you are using LinearLayout

<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/stringname"
    android:layout_gravity="center"/>

Z

Zain

Try this way,it will work

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:gravity="center">
  
        <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textAlignment="center"/>

</LinearLayout>

P

Peter Mortensen

Here is my answer that I had used in my app. It shows text in center of the screen.

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/txtSubject"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/subject"
    android:layout_margin="10dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />

A

Attif

The TextView's height and width are wrap content then the text within the textview always be centered, then make center in its parent layout by using:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:text="Hello.."/>
</RelativeLayout>

For LinearLayout also the code is same :

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:gravity="center">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Hello.."/>
</LinearLayout>

and pro-grammatically parent is RelativeLayout java code this at run time use something like this in your activity

TextView textView1 =(TextView)findViewById(R.id.texView1);
RelativeLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = RelativeLayout.LayoutParams)textView1.getLayoutParams();
layoutParams.addRule(RelativeLayout.CENTER_IN_PARENT, RelativeLayout.TRUE);
textView1.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);

S

Seanghay

Actually, we can do better by excluding fontPadding.

<TextView
  android layout_height="wrap_content"
  android layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:includeFontPadding="false"
  android:textAlignment="center"
/>

r

rgamber

As many answers suggest above works fine.

android:gravity="center"

If you want to center it just vertically:

android:gravity="center_vertical"

or just horizontally:

android:gravity="center_horizontal"

P

Peter Mortensen

Simply, in your XML file, set the textview gravity to center:

<TextView
    android:gravity="center" />

K

Kamlakar Kate

You can do like this to get text centered

<TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:gravity="center" />

S

Sachin

We can achieve this with these multiple ways:-

XML method 01

<TextView  
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"
    android:text="@strings/text"
/>

XML method 02

<TextView  
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"
    android:text="@strings/text"
/>

XML method 03

<TextView  
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@strings/text"
/>

XML method 04

<TextView  
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_centerInParent="true"
    android:text="@strings/text"
/>

Java method 01

textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER_VERTICAL | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL);

Java method 02

textview.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);

Java method 03

textView.setTextAlignment(View.TEXT_ALIGNMENT_CENTER);

How do I center text horizontally and vertically in a TextView?

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