Android Layout Tutorial

Absolute Layout

AbsoluteLayout is based on the simple idea of placing each control at an absolute position.  You specify the exact x and y coordinates on the screen for each control.  This is not recommended for most UI development (in fact AbsoluteLayout is currently deprecated) since absolutely positioning every element on the screen makes an inflexible UI that is much more difficult to maintain.  Consider what happens if a control needs to be added to the UI. You would have to change the position of every single element that is shifted by the new control.
Here is a sample Layout XML using AbsoluteLayout.

<AbsoluteLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/

     apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <Button 
     android:id="@+id/backbutton"
     android:text="Back"
     android:layout_x="10px"
     android:layout_y="5px"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <TextView
     android:layout_x="10px"
     android:layout_y="110px"
     android:text="First Name"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <EditText
     android:layout_x="150px"
     android:layout_y="100px"
     android:width="100px"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <TextView
     android:layout_x="10px"
     android:layout_y="160px"
     android:text="Last Name"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
     <EditText
     android:layout_x="150px"
     android:layout_y="150px"
     android:width="100px"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</AbsoluteLayout>

Note how each element has android:layout_x and android:layout_y specified. Android defines the top left of the screen as (0,0) so the layout_x value will move the control to the right, and the layout_y value will move the control down. Here is a screenshot of the layout produced by this XML.