How to specify spacing between elements of LinearLayout only once?

Question

I recently ran into a problem again that I already had several times in the last years.

LinearLayout is a very convenient layout manager. But what I totally miss is the possibility to add a certain space between the elements (like padding) in a single XML tag.

What I mean by one tag is, that I can define in the declaration of the LinearLayout the spacing between the elements (e.g. in a vertical LinearLayout the vertical space between two elements in this layout).

I know that I can do it by adding the XML tag android:layout_marginTop or something similar to every element in the LinearLayout.

But I would like to be able to define it in only one point, as the spacing is the same for all elements.

Does anybody know an easy way to do this (not implementing a custom LinearLayout or something like that)? I prefer a solution that works directly in XML without the need for coding.

Answer 1

the way that is recommended is to apply a style to all the elements in the linear layout

android:style="@style/mystyle"

<style name="mystyle">
      <item name="android:layout_marginTop">10dp</item>
      ... other things that your elements have in common
</style>