ConstraintLayout: align top of textview with imageview

Question

I tried to align top of image and textview in constraint layout by providing

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/img_medal"
    android:layout_width="32dp"
    android:layout_height="32dp"
    android:layout_marginStart="24dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
    android:contentDescription="@string/default_content_description"
    android:src="@drawable/medal_gold"
    app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="@+id/view_award_region"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/view_award_region" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/txt_medal_title"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="16dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="0dp"
    android:text="You are gold now."
    app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="@+id/img_medal"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/img_medal"
    style="@style/SettingsMedalTitle"
    />

, but the tops of these views get aligned, and not the content, since there is some empty space on the top and bottom of font. Does anyone know how to solve this problem? (Problem can be seen on the picture below)

Answer 1

Try this hack:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/img_medal"
        android:layout_width="32dp"
        android:layout_height="32dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="24dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:paddingTop="6dp"
        android:contentDescription="@string/app_name"
        android:src="@android:drawable/sym_def_app_icon"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/txt_medal_title"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
        android:text="You are gold now."
        android:textSize="20sp"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/img_medal"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/img_medal" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Now, it would look as in the image below:

Hope this helps you. Happy coding.

Answer 2

You will have to set a negative margin top for txt_medal_title to make it move a bit towards upside of the screen.

There are 2 ways in which you can set the amount of this margin.

• Accurate: You have to do this in code. Will be something like the following:

TextView medalTitle = findViewById(R.id.txt_medal_title);
MarginLayoutParams params = (MarginLayoutParams) medalTitle.getLayoutParams();
FontMetrics fm = medalTitle.getPaint().getFontMetrics();
params.topMargin = (int) (fm.top - fm.ascent);

• Visually fitting: You use negative margin value in layout using sp units. You will have to try different values a few times to get the result you want. Note that you will have to recheck this value every time you change the text size or the font that you have used.

Answer 3

I tried to align top of image and textview in constraint layout by providing

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/img_medal"
    android:layout_width="32dp"
    android:layout_height="32dp"
    android:layout_marginStart="24dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
    android:contentDescription="@string/default_content_description"
    android:src="@drawable/medal_gold"
    app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="@+id/view_award_region"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/view_award_region" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/txt_medal_title"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="16dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="0dp"
    android:text="You are gold now."
    app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="@+id/img_medal"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/img_medal"
    style="@style/SettingsMedalTitle"
    />

, but the tops of these views get aligned, and not the content, since there is some empty space on the top and bottom of font. Does anyone know how to solve this problem? (Problem can be seen on the picture below)