Android Recyclerview GridLayoutManager column spacing ?

Question


How do you set the column spacing with a RecyclerView using a GridLayoutManager? Setting the margin/padding inside my layout has no effect.




Answer

RecyclerViews support the concept of ItemDecoration: special offsets and drawing around each element. As seen in this answer, you can use

public class SpacesItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {
  private int space;

  public SpacesItemDecoration(int space) {
    this.space = space;
  }

  @Override
  public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, 
      RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
    outRect.left = space;
    outRect.right = space;
    outRect.bottom = space;

    // Add top margin only for the first item to avoid double space between items
    if (parent.getChildLayoutPosition(view) == 0) {
        outRect.top = space;
    } else {
        outRect.top = 0;
    }
  }
}

Then add it via

mRecyclerView = (RecyclerView) rootView.findViewById(R.id.my_recycler_view);
int spacingInPixels = getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.spacing);
mRecyclerView.addItemDecoration(new SpacesItemDecoration(spacingInPixels));

Answer

Following code works well, and each column has same width:

public class GridSpacingItemDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int spanCount;
    private int spacing;
    private boolean includeEdge;

    public GridSpacingItemDecoration(int spanCount, int spacing, boolean includeEdge) {
        this.spanCount = spanCount;
        this.spacing = spacing;
        this.includeEdge = includeEdge;
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
        int position = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view); // item position
        int column = position % spanCount; // item column

        if (includeEdge) {
            outRect.left = spacing - column * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right = (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // (column + 1) * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)

            if (position < spanCount) { // top edge
                outRect.top = spacing;
            }
            outRect.bottom = spacing; // item bottom
        } else {
            outRect.left = column * spacing / spanCount; // column * ((1f / spanCount) * spacing)
            outRect.right = spacing - (column + 1) * spacing / spanCount; // spacing - (column + 1) * ((1f /    spanCount) * spacing)
            if (position >= spanCount) {
                outRect.top = spacing; // item top
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage

1. no edge

int spanCount = 3; // 3 columns
int spacing = 50; // 50px
boolean includeEdge = false;
recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new GridSpacingItemDecoration(spanCount, spacing, includeEdge));

2. with edge

int spanCount = 3; // 3 columns
int spacing = 50; // 50px
boolean includeEdge = true;
recyclerView.addItemDecoration(new GridSpacingItemDecoration(spanCount, spacing, includeEdge));

Answer

The following is the step-by-step simple solution if you want the equal spacing around items and equal item sizes.

ItemOffsetDecoration

public class ItemOffsetDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

    private int mItemOffset;

    public ItemOffsetDecoration(int itemOffset) {
        mItemOffset = itemOffset;
    }

    public ItemOffsetDecoration(@NonNull Context context, @DimenRes int itemOffsetId) {
        this(context.getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(itemOffsetId));
    }

    @Override
    public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent,
            RecyclerView.State state) {
        super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state);
        outRect.set(mItemOffset, mItemOffset, mItemOffset, mItemOffset);
    }
}

Implementation

In your source code, add ItemOffsetDecoration to your RecyclerView. Item offset value should be half size of the actual value you want to add as space between items.

mRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(new GridLayoutManager(context, NUM_COLUMNS);
ItemOffsetDecoration itemDecoration = new ItemOffsetDecoration(context, R.dimen.item_offset);
mRecyclerView.addItemDecoration(itemDecoration);

Also, set item offset value as padding for itsRecyclerView, and specify android:clipToPadding=false.

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
    android:id="@+id/recyclerview_grid"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:clipToPadding="false"
    android:padding="@dimen/item_offset"/>

Answer

Try this. It'll take care of equal spacing all around. Works both with List, Grid, and StaggeredGrid.

Edited

The updated code should handle most of the corner cases with spans, orientation, etc. Note that if using setSpanSizeLookup() with GridLayoutManager, setting setSpanIndexCacheEnabled() is recommended for performance reasons.

Note, it seems that with StaggeredGrid, there's seems to be a bug where the index of the children gets wacky and hard to track so the code below might not work very well with StaggeredGridLayoutManager.

public class ListSpacingDecoration extends RecyclerView.ItemDecoration {

  private static final int VERTICAL = OrientationHelper.VERTICAL;

  private int orientation = -1;
  private int spanCount = -1;
  private int spacing;
  private int halfSpacing;


  public ListSpacingDecoration(Context context, @DimenRes int spacingDimen) {

    spacing = context.getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(spacingDimen);
    halfSpacing = spacing / 2;
  }

  public ListSpacingDecoration(int spacingPx) {

    spacing = spacingPx;
    halfSpacing = spacing / 2;
  }

  @Override
  public void getItemOffsets(Rect outRect, View view, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {

    super.getItemOffsets(outRect, view, parent, state);

    if (orientation == -1) {
        orientation = getOrientation(parent);
    }

    if (spanCount == -1) {
        spanCount = getTotalSpan(parent);
    }

    int childCount = parent.getLayoutManager().getItemCount();
    int childIndex = parent.getChildAdapterPosition(view);

    int itemSpanSize = getItemSpanSize(parent, childIndex);
    int spanIndex = getItemSpanIndex(parent, childIndex);

    /* INVALID SPAN */
    if (spanCount < 1) return;

    setSpacings(outRect, parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex);
  }

  protected void setSpacings(Rect outRect, RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    outRect.top = halfSpacing;
    outRect.bottom = halfSpacing;
    outRect.left = halfSpacing;
    outRect.right = halfSpacing;

    if (isTopEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.top = spacing;
    }

    if (isLeftEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.left = spacing;
    }

    if (isRightEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.right = spacing;
    }

    if (isBottomEdge(parent, childCount, childIndex, itemSpanSize, spanIndex)) {
        outRect.bottom = spacing;
    }
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getTotalSpan(RecyclerView parent) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanCount();
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanCount();
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    }

    return -1;
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getItemSpanSize(RecyclerView parent, int childIndex) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanSize(childIndex);
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 1;
    }

    return -1;
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getItemSpanIndex(RecyclerView parent, int childIndex) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getSpanSizeLookup().getSpanIndex(childIndex, spanCount);
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return childIndex % spanCount;
    } else if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return 0;
    }

    return -1;
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("all")
  protected int getOrientation(RecyclerView parent) {

    RecyclerView.LayoutManager mgr = parent.getLayoutManager();
    if (mgr instanceof LinearLayoutManager) {
        return ((LinearLayoutManager) mgr).getOrientation();
    } else if (mgr instanceof GridLayoutManager) {
        return ((GridLayoutManager) mgr).getOrientation();
    } else if (mgr instanceof StaggeredGridLayoutManager) {
        return ((StaggeredGridLayoutManager) mgr).getOrientation();
    }

    return VERTICAL;
  }

  protected boolean isLeftEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return spanIndex == 0;

    } else {

        return (childIndex == 0) || isFirstItemEdgeValid((childIndex < spanCount), parent, childIndex);
    }
  }

  protected boolean isRightEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return (spanIndex + itemSpanSize) == spanCount;

    } else {

        return isLastItemEdgeValid((childIndex >= childCount - spanCount), parent, childCount, childIndex, spanIndex);
    }
  }

  protected boolean isTopEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return (childIndex == 0) || isFirstItemEdgeValid((childIndex < spanCount), parent, childIndex);

    } else {

        return spanIndex == 0;
    }
  }

  protected boolean isBottomEdge(RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int itemSpanSize, int spanIndex) {

    if (orientation == VERTICAL) {

        return isLastItemEdgeValid((childIndex >= childCount - spanCount), parent, childCount, childIndex, spanIndex);

    } else {

        return (spanIndex + itemSpanSize) == spanCount;
    }
  }

  protected boolean isFirstItemEdgeValid(boolean isOneOfFirstItems, RecyclerView parent, int childIndex) {

    int totalSpanArea = 0;
    if (isOneOfFirstItems) {
        for (int i = childIndex; i >= 0; i--) {
            totalSpanArea = totalSpanArea + getItemSpanSize(parent, i);
        }
    }

    return isOneOfFirstItems && totalSpanArea <= spanCount;
  }

  protected boolean isLastItemEdgeValid(boolean isOneOfLastItems, RecyclerView parent, int childCount, int childIndex, int spanIndex) {

    int totalSpanRemaining = 0;
    if (isOneOfLastItems) {
        for (int i = childIndex; i < childCount; i++) {
            totalSpanRemaining = totalSpanRemaining + getItemSpanSize(parent, i);
        }
    }

    return isOneOfLastItems && (totalSpanRemaining <= spanCount - spanIndex);
  }
}

Hope it helps.