How to fix text overflowing TextView with padding android:ellipsize="marquee"

Question

On some Android devices (LG Google Nexus 5 with Android L and M) a TextView with android:ellipsize="marquee" and padding results in the text overflowing the textview. It occurs on the right side but not on the left side of the TextView, though, while the padding is applied to both the left and the right side.

It does not occur on Samsung Galaxy S3 and S6 with Android K and L, respectively.

<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginBottom="1dp"
android:paddingTop="2dp"
android:paddingBottom="2dp"
android:paddingLeft="4dp"
android:paddingRight="4dp"
android:singleLine="true"
android:ellipsize="marquee"
android:marqueeRepeatLimit="marquee_forever"
android:scrollHorizontally="true"
android:freezesText="true"
android:alpha="0.85"
android:background="@color/by433_gray_darker"
android:textColor="@color/white"
android:textSize="11sp" />

What can I do to fix or work around this?

Dobb

Answer 1

Your issue is a bug of Android and already reported and assigned on Android Open Source Project:

Your workaround may look like this:

<FrameLayout android:layout_width="match_parent"
             android:layout_height="wrap_content"
             android:paddingTop="2dp"
             android:paddingBottom="2dp"
             android:paddingLeft="4dp"
             android:paddingRight="4dp"
             android:layout_marginBottom="1dp"
             android:background="@color/by433_gray_darker">
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textId"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:ellipsize="marquee"
        android:marqueeRepeatLimit="marquee_forever"
        android:scrollHorizontally="true"
        android:freezesText="false"
        android:alpha="0.85"
        android:text="super nice text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text"
        android:textColor="@color/white"
        android:textSize="11sp" />
</FrameLayout>

So, the idea is to have a wrapper container with paddings, margins and background. (It shouldn't be much of performance overhead, if you have only couple of such views)

---

Original incorrect answer (Though there were two TextViews) The issue might be due to combination of so many attributes on your TextView. Here are some suggestions:

1. First try to remove attribute one by one checking the result
2. You can try to specify paddings on your container instead of text views

3. From your layout it seems that you can try something like this instead of "match_parent" on your text views:

   <LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal" ...>
       <TextView android:layout_width="0dp" android:layout_weight="1" ... />
       <TextView android:layout_width="0dp" android:layout_weight="1" ... />
   </LinearLayout>
   

Officialese

Thanks Gregory, but I don't have time to verify right now, but if no one else is going to answer in less then 5 days I will give you the bounty.. otherwise the bounty will vanish :P .. 'but for the time being' the main question remains.. why it doesn't occur on Samsung Galaxy S3 and S6 with Android K and L. – Dobb

@WojtekDmyszewicz wanted to provide some ideas of how to start fixing/working around this. Will look into it a bit more, if you can provide the code problematic code (I mean container + text views) – Officialese

why give bounty if the question is not answered? The textview sits inside a linearlayout (with the title textview) that is aligned to parent (relativelayout) bottom. The core of the question is: why does this overflowing occur on one side, on some devices, at all. Please prove that solution 3 would work. – Pomfrey

@JessevanMuijden it seems I misunderstood the issue ). Thought Wojtek had two text views. Will update my answer shortly. – Officialese