Button's padding is not working without background

Question

Today I encountered a quit weird layout issue and I have not found out any helpful answer from Google.

On my layout, I have a button with text on the left and an icon on the right. I want the text to be 20dp left margin to the border of the button then I set paddingLeft to the button but it's not working. By chance, I set background color for the button and the padding works like charm. Anyone can help me explain this thing.

The layout is as below

<Buttonandroid:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:drawableRight="@drawable/right_arrow"
        android:paddingLeft="20dp"
        android:paddingRight="20dp"
        android:layout_height="72dp"
        android:text="Button"
        android:id="@+id/btn"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:fontFamily="roboto regular"
        android:textColor="#ffffff00"
        style="@android:style/Widget.DeviceDefault.Button.Borderless" />

Thank you all!

I updated the question. I want the icon to be 20dp right margin and the text to be 20dp left margin to the border of my button — meaholik, Apr 17 '15 at 05:24
What I really need in this question is an explanation why the padding left could not work without setting background color for the button... — meaholik, May 13 '15 at 17:54

score 28 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 12 '21 at 12:30

Setting minWidth and minHeight seem to do the trick of getting the padding and margins to work properly with or without a background.

<Button 
    android:minHeight="0dp"
    android:minWidth="0dp" ...

As far as why the background does anything to how the padding works... I think it has to do with this bit of code in View.java

protected int getSuggestedMinimumWidth() {
    return (mBackground == null) ? mMinWidth : max(mMinWidth, mBackground.getMinimumWidth());
}

protected int getSuggestedMinimumHeight() {
    return (mBackground == null) ? mMinHeight : max(mMinHeight, mBackground.getMinimumHeight());
}

https://stackoverflow.com/a/20323723/4401507

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 17 '15 at 05:47

2

You can try this

Instead of using Button you can use Textview, it works same,as what you want

 <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:drawableRight="@drawable/right_arrow"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:text="Button"
        android:paddingLeft="20dp"
        android:paddingRight="20dp"
        android:textColor="#ffffff00" />

Hope this works for you.

answered Apr 17 '15 at 05:47

A.R.

2,631
1
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1

"android:padding" worked with a Button, but not specific padding ( such as "android:paddingLeft" ). Changing my Button to a TextView solved my problem. Thanks. – advice Mar 10 '16 at 12:14
Thanks Advice-Dog. Your "android:padding" comment resolved it for me too, but why? – Slartibartfast Jun 07 '18 at 23:23

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 17 '15 at 05:29

0

Add this

android:drawablePadding="20dp"

answered Apr 17 '15 at 05:29

Abhishek

1,337
10
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can you add a screen shot of what are getting and what you want? – Abhishek Apr 17 '15 at 05:37

Button's padding is not working without background

3 Answers3