First time programmer confused as to why the EditText and Button fields aren't going where I want them to

Question

I am coding in XML on android studios, and I am having trouble getting the EditText to be centered at the top and the Button to be centered in the center. I do not know a lot about code so the other things I've read about Relative vs Linear Layout have been very confusing. I've never coded prior to this, so I'm very sorry if most of it is wrong.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:id="@+id/touch" >

<EditText android:id="@+id/edit_message"
    android:layout_width="225dp"
    android:layout_height="225dp"
    android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:hint="@string/edit_message"
    />

<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:gravity="top"
    android:textSize="62sp"
    android:text="@string/begin_app"/>

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

Use the below code in your layout:

android:layout_alignParentTop will align the view on Top

android:layout_alignParentTop will align the view on center of parent

android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" and android:layout_centerVertical="true" will align the view in center of the parent

Layout code with RelativeLayout

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <EditText
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:text="text" />

    <Button
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:text="Button" />
</RelativeLayout>

In android studio just go to the layout xml file and click Design, you can drag and drop the widgets wherever you want and the system will generate the code for you with the placement you desired. Its great for starters.