Android RelativeLayout in Kotlin
Last Updated :
12 Jul, 2025
RelativeLayout in Android is a ViewGroup subclass, that allows users to position child views relative to each other (e.g., view A to the right of view B) or relative to the parent (e.g., aligned to the top of the parent). Instead of using LinearLayout, we have to use RelativeLayout to design the user interface and keep our hierarchy flat because it improves the performance of the application. Unlike LinearLayout, which stacks the views in a particular direction, RelativeLayout allows more flexibility and dynamic UIs while maintaining a flat view hierarchy. This improves performance of the app.
Important Attributes for Positioning Views in the RelativeLayout
As we know, we need to define the position of child views or ViewGroups relative to each other element or relative to the parent. By default position is top-left, if someone forgets to specify the position of child views.
| XML attributes | Description |
|---|
| layout_alignParentLeft | Set "true" to match the left edge of view to the left edge of parent. |
| layout_alignParentRight | Set "true" to match the right edge of view to the right edge of the parent. |
| layout_alignParentTop | Set to "true" to match the top edge of the view to the top edge of the parent. |
| layout_alignParentBottom | Set to "true" to match the bottom edge of the view to the bottom edge of the parent. |
| layout_alignLeft | It accepts another sibling view ID and Align the view to the left of the specified view ID. |
| layout_alignRight | It accepts another sibling view ID and Align the view to the right of the specified view ID. |
| layout_alignStart | It accepts another sibling view ID and Align the view to the start of the specified view ID. |
| layout_alignEnd | It accepts another sibling view ID and Align the view to the end of the specified view ID. |
| layout_centerInParent | When it is set to "true", the view will be aligned to the center of parent. |
| layout_centerHorizontal | When it is set to "true", the view will be horizontally centre-aligned within its parent. |
| layout_centerVertical | When it is set to "true", the view will be vertically centre-aligned within its parent. |
| layout_toLeftOf | It accepts another sibling view ID and places the view left of the specified view ID. |
| layout_toRightOf | It accepts another sibling view ID and places the view right of the specified view ID. |
| layout_toStartOf | It accepts another sibling view ID and places the view to start of the specified view ID. |
| layout_toEndOf | It accepts another sibling view ID and places the view to end of the specified view ID. |
| layout_above | It accepts another sibling view ID and places the view above the specified view ID. |
| layout_below | It accepts another sibling view ID and places the view below the specified view ID. |
How to Declare RelativeLayout in XML file?
Here's an example of how to declare a RelativeLayout in an XML file:
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/main"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<!-- sub-view 1 -->
<View
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
<!-- sub-view 2 -->
<View
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</RelativeLayout>
Example of Application using Relative Layout
Let's create a application accepting first and last name of a person. Before moving to MainActivity.kt , we will first create a layout of application using Relative Layout.
RelativeLayout in activity_main.xml file
Following is a sample code for RelativeLayout in xml file which includes two TextView(s), two EditText(s) and a Button.
activity_main.xml:
activity_main.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/main"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="@color/white"
android:gravity="center"
android:padding="32dp"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<!-- subview - TextView -->
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:padding="16dp"
android:text="First name:"
android:textSize="20sp" />
<!-- subview - EditText -->
<EditText
android:id="@+id/editText1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignTop="@+id/textView1"
android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/textView1"
android:layout_toEndOf="@id/textView1"
android:elegantTextHeight="true"
android:hint="Geeks"
android:padding="16dp" />
<!-- subview - TextView -->
<TextView
android:id="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_below="@+id/textView1"
android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
android:padding="16dp"
android:text="Last name:"
android:textSize="20sp" />
<!-- subview - EditText -->
<EditText
android:id="@+id/editText2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_alignTop="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_toEndOf="@id/textView2"
android:elegantTextHeight="true"
android:hint="forGeeks"
android:padding="16dp" />
<!-- subview - Button -->
<Button
android:id="@+id/button"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="32dp"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_below="@id/textView2"
android:backgroundTint="@color/green"
android:text="Submit" />
</RelativeLayout>
Here's a view of the design and blueprint in the design layout:
MainActivity.kt file
When the layout is created, you can access the UI elements from the activity_main.xml file by using the findViewById() method in the onCreate() call back function in the MainActivity.kt file.
MainActivity.kt:
MainActivity.kt
package org.geeksforgeeks.demo
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.EditText
import android.widget.TextView
import androidx.activity.enableEdgeToEdge
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import androidx.core.view.ViewCompat
import androidx.core.view.WindowInsetsCompat
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity()
{
// The child elements are initialized here
private lateinit var textView1: TextView
private lateinit var textView2: TextView
private lateinit var editText1: EditText
private lateinit var editText2: EditText
private lateinit var button: Button
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
// the child elements are accessed here from the xml layout
textView1 = findViewById(R.id.textView1)
textView2 = findViewById(R.id.textView2)
editText1 = findViewById(R.id.editText1)
editText2 = findViewById(R.id.editText2)
button = findViewById(R.id.button)
button.setOnClickListener {
/*
* add functionality for the button to
* save the user credentials in database
*/
}
}
}
Output:
After running the application, this is the expected result from the above code:
