Android Gravity vs Layout Gravity: Guide

In Android layout, gravity and layout are two distinct attributes that can be used to control the position and alignment of views within the layout.

1. Gravity is used to control the alignment of a view’s content within its available space. It can be set in layout containers such as LinearLayout and FrameLayout. For example, setting a TextView’s Gravity property to center_horizontal|center_vertical will center the text both horizontally and vertically within the TextView.

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

1. Layout attribute is used to control the position and size of a view within a parent layout. It can be set in various layout types such as LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, etc. For example, setting a Button to be positioned in the top left corner of a RelativeLayout, with a width spanning the entire parent layout.

<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <Button
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Button"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Summary: Gravity is used to control the alignment of the content within its available space, while Layout is used to control the position and size of the view within its parent layout. Choose the appropriate properties for the layout based on specific needs.