Absolute Layout in Android with Example

Last Updated : 02 Dec, 2020

An Absolute Layout allows you to specify the exact location .i.e., X and Y coordinates of its children with respect to the origin at the top left corner of the layout. The absolute layout is less flexible and harder to maintain for varying sizes of screens that’s why it is not recommended. Although Absolute Layout is deprecated now.

Absolute Layout in Android

Some of the important Absolute Layout attributes are the following:

android:id: It uniquely specifies the absolute layout
android:layout_x: It specifies X-Coordinate of the Views (Possible values of this is in density-pixel or pixel)
android:layout_y: It specifies Y-Coordinate of the Views (Possible values of this is in dp or px)

The Syntax for Absolute Layout

XML

<AbsoluteLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"> 
<!--add child views-->
</AbsoluteLayout>

Example

In this example, we are going to create a basic application with Absolute Layout that is having two TextView. Note that we are going to implement this project using the Java language.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. Note that select Java as the programming language.

Step 2: Create the layout file

For this go to app > res > layout > activity_main.xml file and change the Constraint Layout to Absolute Layout and add TextViews. Below is the code snippet for the activity_mian.xml file.

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<AbsoluteLayout 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity"> 
  
    <!--Setting up TextViews-->
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_x="100px"
        android:layout_y="300px" /> 
  
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_x="120px"
        android:layout_y="350px" /> 
  
</AbsoluteLayout>

Before moving further let’s add some color attributes in order to enhance the app bar. Go to app > res > values > colors.xml and add the following color attributes.

XML

<resources>  
    <color name="colorPrimary">#0F9D58</color>  
    <color name="colorPrimaryDark">#16E37F</color>  
    <color name="colorAccent">#03DAC5</color>  
</resources>  

Step 3: Working with the MainActivity.java file

In this step, we will initialize the TextViews in our MainActivity.java file.

Java

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity; 
import android.os.Bundle; 
import android.widget.TextView; 
  
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity { 
  
    TextView heading, subHeading; 
  
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { 
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); 
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); 
  
        // Referencing the TextViews 
        heading = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.heading); 
        subHeading = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.subHeading); 
          
        // Setting text dynamically 
        heading.setText("Computer Science Portal"); 
        subHeading.setText("GeeksForGeeks"); 
    } 
}