Question

I'm trying to figure out how to define a vertical line (1dp thick) to be used as a drawable.

To make a horizontal one, it's pretty straightforward:

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="line">
    <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#0000FF"/>
    <size android:height="50dp" />     
</shape>

The question is, how to make this line vertical?

Yes, there are workarounds, such as drawing a rectangle shape 1px thick, but that complicates the drawable XML, if it consists of multiple <item> elements.

Anyone had any chance with this?

UPDATE

Case is still unsolved. However, For anyone on a Android documentation crusade - you might find this useful: Missing Android XML Manual

UPDATE

I found no other way other than the one that I marked as correct. It does the trick though feels a bit "heavy", thus if you happen to know the answer don't forget to share ;)

Was it helpful?

Solution

Instead of a shape, you could try a View:

<View
    android:layout_width="1dp"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#FF0000FF" />

I have only used this for horizontal lines, but I would think it would work for vertical lines as well.

Use:

<View
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="1dp"
    android:background="#FF0000FF" />

for a horizontal line.

OTHER TIPS

You can nest your shape inside a rotate tag.

<rotate xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:fromDegrees="90"
    android:toDegrees="90">
    <shape 
        android:shape="line">
        <stroke
            android:width="1dp"
            android:color="#ff00ff"
            android:dashWidth="1dp"
            android:dashGap="2dp" />
    </shape>
</rotate>

However, the only problem is the layout params defined in your layout xml will be the dimensions used to draw the original shape. Meaning if you want your line to be 30dp tall, you need to define a layout_width of 30dp in your layout xml. But the final width will also be 30dp in that case, which is likely undesirable for most situations. This essentially means both width and height have to be the same value, the value of your desired length for the line. I couldn't figure out how to fix this.

This seems to be the "android way" solution, but unless there's some fix or workaround for the dimensions issue I mention then this likely won't work for most people. What we really need is an orientation attribute in <shape/> or <stroke/>.

You can also try referencing another drawable in the rotate tag's attributes, such as:

<rotate xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:fromDegrees="90"
    android:toDegrees="90"
    android:drawable="@drawable/horizontal_line" />

However I haven't tested this and expect it to have the same issues.

-- EDIT --

Oh, I actually figured out a fix. You can use a negative margin in your layout xml to get rid of the undesired extra space. Such as:

<ImageView
    android:layout_width="35dp"
    android:layout_height="35dp"
    android:layout_marginLeft="-15dp"
    android:layout_marginRight="-15dp"
    android:src="@drawable/dashed_vertical_line" />
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:shape="rectangle" >
    <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="@color/white" />
    <size android:width="2dp" />
</shape>

Work's for me . Put it as background of view with fill_parent or fixed sized in dp height

You can use the rotate attribute

 <item>
    <rotate
        android:fromDegrees="90"
        android:toDegrees="90"
        android:pivotX="50%"
        android:pivotY="50%" >
        <shape
            android:shape="line"
            android:top="1dip" >
            <stroke
                android:width="1dip"
                 />
        </shape>
    </rotate>
</item>

I came up with a different solution. The idea is to fill the drawable first with the color that you like the line to be and then fill the whole area again with the background color while using left or right padding. Obviously this only works for a vertical line in the far left or right of your drawable.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item android:drawable="@color/divider_color" />
    <item android:left="6dp" android:drawable="@color/background_color" />
</layer-list>

I think this is the simplest solution:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item
        android:gravity="center">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <size android:width="1dp" />
            <solid android:color="#0000FF" />
        </shape>
    </item>

</layer-list>

I needed to add my views dynamically/programmatically, so adding an extra view would have been cumbersome. My view height was WRAP_CONTENT, so I couldn't use the rectangle solution. I found a blog-post here about extending TextView, overriding onDraw() and painting in the line, so I implemented that and it works well. See my code below:

public class NoteTextView extends TextView {
    public NoteTextView(Context context) {
       super(context);
    }
    private Paint paint = new Paint();
    @Override
    protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
        super.onDraw(canvas);
        paint.setColor(Color.parseColor("#F00000FF"));
        paint.setStrokeWidth(0);
        paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
        canvas.drawLine(0, 0, 0, getHeight(), paint);
    }
}

I needed a vertical line on the left, but the drawline parameters are drawLine(startX, startY, stopX, stopY, paint) so you can draw any straight line in any direction across the view. Then in my activity I have NoteTextView note = new NoteTextView(this); Hope this helps.

its very simple... to add a vertical line in android xml...

<View
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="1dp"
android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
android:rotation="90"
android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"/>

Depends, where you want to have the vertical line, but if you want a vertical border for example, you can have the parent view have a background a custom drawable. And you can then define the drawable like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item>
        <shape
            android:shape="rectangle">
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#000000" />
            <solid android:color="#00ffffff" />

        </shape>
    </item>

    <item android:right="1dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#00ffffff" />
        </shape>
    </item>

</layer-list>

This example will create a 1dp thin black line on the right side of the view, that will have this drawable as an background.

You can use a shape but instead of a line make it rectangle.

android:shape="rectangle">
<stroke
    android:width="5dp"
    android:color="#ff000000"
    android:dashGap="10px"
    android:dashWidth="30px" />

and In your layout use this...

<ImageView
    android:layout_width="7dp"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:src="@drawable/dashline"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layerType="software"/>

You might have to play with the width, depending on the size of the dashes, to get it into a single line.

Hope this helps Cheers

add this in your styles.xml

        <style name="Divider">
            <item name="android:layout_width">1dip</item>
            <item name="android:layout_height">match_parent</item>
            <item name="android:background">@color/divider_color</item>
        </style>

        <style name="Divider_invisible">
            <item name="android:layout_width">1dip</item>
            <item name="android:layout_height">match_parent</item>
        </style>

then wrap this style in a linear layout where you want the vertical line, I used the vertical line as a column divider in my table. 

     <TableLayout
                android:id="@+id/table"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:orientation="horizontal"
                android:stretchColumns="*" >

                <TableRow
                    android:id="@+id/tableRow1"
                    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                    android:layout_height="match_parent"
                    android:background="#92C94A" >

                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/textView11"
                        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                        android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                        android:paddingRight="5dp"
                        android:paddingTop="10dp" />
    //...................................................................    

                    <LinearLayout
                        android:layout_width="1dp"
                        android:layout_height="match_parent" >

                        <View style="@style/Divider_invisible" />
                    </LinearLayout>
        //...................................................................
                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/textView12"
                        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                        android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                        android:paddingRight="5dp"
                        android:paddingTop="10dp"
                        android:text="@string/main_wo_colon"
                        android:textColor="@color/white"
                        android:textSize="16sp" />
  //...............................................................  
                    <LinearLayout
                        android:layout_width="1dp"
                        android:layout_height="match_parent" >

                        <View style="@style/Divider" />
                    </LinearLayout>

    //...................................................................
                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/textView13"
                        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                        android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                        android:paddingRight="5dp"
                        android:paddingTop="10dp"
                        android:text="@string/side_wo_colon"
                        android:textColor="@color/white"
                        android:textSize="16sp" />

                    <LinearLayout
                        android:layout_width="1dp"
                        android:layout_height="match_parent" >

                        <View style="@style/Divider" />
                    </LinearLayout>

                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/textView14"
                        android:paddingBottom="10dp"
                        android:paddingLeft="5dp"
                        android:paddingRight="5dp"
                        android:paddingTop="10dp"
                        android:text="@string/total"
                        android:textColor="@color/white"
                        android:textSize="16sp" />
                </TableRow>

                <!-- display this button in 3rd column via layout_column(zero based) -->

                <TableRow
                    android:id="@+id/tableRow2"
                    android:layout_width="match_parent"
                    android:layout_height="match_parent"
                    android:background="#6F9C33" >

                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/textView21"
                        android:padding="5dp"
                        android:text="@string/servings"
                        android:textColor="@color/white"
                        android:textSize="16sp" />

                    <LinearLayout
                        android:layout_width="1dp"
                        android:layout_height="match_parent" >

                        <View style="@style/Divider" />
                    </LinearLayout>

    ..........
    .......
    ......
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item
        android:bottom="-3dp"
        android:left="-3dp"
        android:top="-3dp">

        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="@color/colorPrimary" />
            <stroke
                android:width="2dp"
                android:color="#1fc78c" />
        </shape>

    </item>

</layer-list>

To make a vertical line, just use a rectangle with width of 1dp:

<shape>
    <size
        android:width="1dp"
        android:height="16dp" />
    <solid
        android:color="#c8cdd2" />
</shape>

Don't use stroke, use solid (which is the "fill" color) to specify the color of the line.

It looks like no one mentioned this option:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item android:drawable="@color/white" android:width="1dp"/>
</layer-list>
 <View
        android:layout_width="2dp"
        android:layout_height="40dp"

        android:background="#ffffff"
        android:padding="10dp" />`
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