Error in xml layout, Can't convert to dimension: 15

Question

Within my application I have an error in the graphical layout which shows up as:

error!
UnsupportedOperationException: Can't convert to dimension: 15
Exception details are logged in Window > Show View > Error LogThe following classes could not be found:
- TextView

When I run the application this works, but it shows the error in the graphical layout, does anyone know the cause of this.

It occurs when I put android:layout_marginTop="-3dip" , if I dont use - then this doesn't show.

Thanks

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 10 '13 at 04:52

3

There is no such thing as a negative margin. Use android:gravity="top" if your textview is higher than your textsize and you want the text to appear on the top. Otherwise use android:layout_height="wrap_content". Your view will exactly fit this way.

If you want 3dp space between the top border of the textview and the actual text, use android:paddingTop="3dp". Generally, margin is the free space outside the view, padding is the inside spacing between the border and the content.

edited Sep 10 '13 at 04:52

Sumurai8

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answered Mar 14 '11 at 00:48

31

Actually negative margins can be used in LinearLayout. – Romain Guy Mar 14 '11 at 01:07
@Romain can it not be used in RelativeLayout? – Raj Mar 14 '11 at 01:38
20

You can use negative margins in RelativeLayout too. – Romain Guy Mar 14 '11 at 04:30
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In a RelativeLayout, "-1dp" in attribute "layout_marginTop" is not a valid format. That's what the designer says. – cprcrack Apr 25 '13 at 10:51
@RomainGuy is this expected behaviour and only fixable with negative margins? http://stackoverflow.com/q/17525084/1322226 – quinestor Aug 05 '13 at 11:21
@RomainGuy can I expect a button to still be clickable after using negative margins to float it outside of a view? – Sam Apr 14 '15 at 22:44
@Sam no unless you mess with the tap event routing. – Anthony Mills Nov 03 '15 at 00:19
After a couple of years Romain Guy says "Negative margins have never been officially supported in RelativeLayout." https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=212499 – Stan Mots Mar 14 '17 at 16:02

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 16 '11 at 20:22

I doubt you still need help with this problem; however, I ran into a similar message and thought I would share to hopefully help anyone else that might run into this error message.

I found that the error was only occurring in the "2.7in QVGA slider" device configuration. I also found that if I changed the negative value to a different number I no longer got the error message.

So, I ended up using -2 instead.

I am going to guess the error is caused by some of the scaling calculations in the graphical renderer. But it's not worth researching to find out at this point.

Error in xml layout, Can't convert to dimension: 15

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