android: gap between icon and spinner

Question

I would like to ask about the actionbar in the gmail app.

In the main activity, there is a spinner in the actionbar (Inbox, Sent, etc.) and there is no title.

I tried that in my app but there is a bigger gap between the app icon and the spinner than it is in gmail app.

I made the title both invisible and empty but still the gap is somehow bigger.

Do I have to make my own view definition for the actionbar to achieve the same effect?

Many thanks, Martin

Answer 1

Thank you all for answers. The answer of matthias lead me to the following solution that worked like a charm:

public class ZeroPaddingArrayAdapter<T> extends ArrayAdapter<T> {

    public InboxTypeAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId, T[] objects) {
        super(context, textViewResourceId, objects);
    }

    public static ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> createFromResource(Context context,
                                                                int textArrayResId, int textViewResId) {
        CharSequence[] strings = context.getResources().getTextArray(textArrayResId);
        return new ZeroPaddingArrayAdapter<CharSequence>(context, textViewResId, strings);
    }

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        View view = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
        view.setPadding(
                0,
                    view.getPaddingTop(),
                0,
                view.getPaddingBottom()
        );
        return view;
    }

}

For spinners:

getView() - Get the view of the currently selected item. getDropDownView() - Get the views that are displayed when spinner is open.

We only need to reduce the padding in getView().

Just use this adapter instead of the simple ArrayAdapter.

Answer 2

Create a drawable with the correct padding as your action bar icon.

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

    <item android:drawable="@drawable/logo"
          android:right="10dp"/>

</layer-list>

Then just set is as your icon in the manifest. You should be able to adjust the padding this way.

Answer 3

Reduce the padding of the Spinner, more precisely the padding of the View in the layout that gets inflated in the getView() method of the Adapter. I just tried this in a sample project, it narrows the gap significantly.

Answer 4

add this line spinner.setPadding(0,0,0,0); to hide the down arrow image when drop down is opened.