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

Question

How do I center the text horizontally and vertically in a TextView, so that it appears exactly in the middle of the TextView in Android?

Answer 1

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.

and as @stealthcopter commented in java: .setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);

Answer 2

android:gravity="center" 

This will do the trick

Answer 3

You can also set it up dynamically using:

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

Answer 4

android:layout_centerInParent="true"

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

Answer 5

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").

Answer 6

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"        
/>

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

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>

Answer 9

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);

Answer 10

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.

Answer 11

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);

Answer 12

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);

Answer 13

Use this for relative layout

android:layout_centerInParent="true"

and for other layout

android:gravity="center" 

Answer 14

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>

Answer 15

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.

Answer 16

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>

Answer 17

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

textview.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER)

Answer 18

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

Answer 19

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>

Answer 20

Use android:textAlignment="center"

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

Answer 21

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" />

Answer 22

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"/>

Answer 23

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"

Answer 24

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"
/>

Answer 25

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

<TextView
    android:gravity="center" />

Answer 26

You can do like this to get text centered

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

Answer 27

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);

Answer 28

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);

Answer 29

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.

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>

Answer 30

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>