CardView layout_width="match_parent" does not match parent RecyclerView width

Question

I have a fragment with contains a RecyclerView with layout_width="match_parent":

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".MainActivity$PlaceholderFragment" />

The item in the RecyclerView is a CardView also with layout_width="match_parent":

<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:card_view="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/card_view"
    android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_margin="20dp"
    card_view:cardCornerRadius="4dp">

    <TextView
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:id="@+id/info_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:textAppearance="?android:textAppearanceLarge"/>
</android.support.v7.widget.CardView>

I inflate the item view as below:

public MyAdapter.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent,
                                                   int viewType) {
        CardView v = (CardView) LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext())
                .inflate(R.layout.card_listitem, null, true);

        ViewHolder vh = new ViewHolder(v);
        return vh;
    }

But when I run the app, the CardView is rendered as wrap_content as shown below:

Note that this was run on emulator, not a real device.

Am I doing something wrong, or is it a bug?

Answer 1

The docs for inflate:

Inflate a new view hierarchy from the specified xml resource. Throws InflateException if there is an error.

Parameters
resource ID for an XML layout resource to load (e.g., R.layout.main_page) root
view to be the parent of the generated hierarchy (if attachToRoot is true), or else simply an object that provides a set of LayoutParams values for root of the returned hierarchy (if attachToRoot is false.)
attachToRoot Whether the inflated hierarchy should be attached to the root parameter? If false, root is only used to create the correct subclass of LayoutParams for the root view in the XML. Returns The root View of the inflated hierarchy. If root was supplied and attachToRoot is true, this is root; otherwise it is the root of the inflated XML file.

It is important here to not supply true, but do supply the parent:

LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext())
            .inflate(R.layout.card_listitem, parent, false);

Supplying the parent View lets the inflater know what layoutparams to use. Supplying the false parameter tells it to not attach it to the parent just yet. That is what the RecyclerView will do for you.