Center Align text in linear layout in eclipse?

Question

I have a button on the left of the linear layout and a textview that I want to be in the center of the whole linear layout, but it ends up being pushed to the right by the button no matter what I try.

<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:background="@drawable/hed_bg" >

<Button
    android:id="@+id/button_back_memory"
    android:layout_width="60dp"
    android:layout_height="30dp"
    android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
    android:background="@drawable/back_button"
    android:text="Back"
    android:textColor="#69adda"
    android:textSize="13sp" />

<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
    android:layout_weight="0.29"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="Memory"
    android:textColor="@android:color/white"
    android:textSize="15sp" />
</LinearLayout>

I need the text to be centered in the textview and the text view to be centered in the linear layout without being moved by the button.

Answer 1

You should use this attribute to make your TextView centered

android:layout_gravity="center"

and this to make your text centered in TextView

android:gravity="center"

Answer 2

Actually it is what LinearLayout does: packing its children after each other. If you don't want that behavior use another class, like FrameLayout.

Answer 3

Change your LinearLayout to a RelativeLayout,

Change your TextView replace android:layout_width="fill_parent" by android:layout_width="wrap_content"

and add android:layout_centerInParent="true"