How to center align the ActionBar title in Android?

Question

I am trying to use the following code to center the text in the ActionBar, but it aligns itself to the left.

How do you make it appear in the center?

ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(true);
actionBar.setTitle("Canteen Home");
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
actionBar.setIcon(R.drawable.back);

Solution 1

To have a centered title in ABS (if you want to have this in the default ActionBar, just remove the "support" in the method names), you could just do this:

In your Activity, in your onCreate() method:

getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM); 
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.abs_layout);

abs_layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatTextView
        android:id="@+id/tvTitle"
        style="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:textColor="#FFFFFF" />

</LinearLayout>

Now you should have an Actionbar with just a title. If you want to set a custom background, set it in the Layout above (but then don't forget to set android:layout_height="match_parent").

or with:

getSupportActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.yourimage));

Solution 2

I haven't had much success with the other answers... below is exactly what worked for me on Android 4.4.3 using the ActionBar in the support library v7. I have it set up to show the navigation drawer icon ("burger menu button")

XML

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="horizontal" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/actionbar_textview"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:maxLines="1"
        android:clickable="false"
        android:focusable="false"
        android:longClickable="false"
        android:textStyle="bold"
        android:textSize="18sp"
        android:textColor="#FFFFFF" />

</LinearLayout>

Java

//Customize the ActionBar
final ActionBar abar = getSupportActionBar();
abar.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.actionbar_background));//line under the action bar
View viewActionBar = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.actionbar_titletext_layout, null);
ActionBar.LayoutParams params = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(//Center the textview in the ActionBar !
        ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 
        ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, 
        Gravity.CENTER);
TextView textviewTitle = (TextView) viewActionBar.findViewById(R.id.actionbar_textview);
textviewTitle.setText("Test");
abar.setCustomView(viewActionBar, params);
abar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
abar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
abar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
abar.setIcon(R.color.transparent);
abar.setHomeButtonEnabled(true);

Solution 3

Define your own custom view with title text, then pass LayoutParams to setCustomView(), as Sergii says.

ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar()
actionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM); 
actionBar.setCustomView(getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.action_bar_home, null),
        new ActionBar.LayoutParams(
                ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
                ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
                Gravity.CENTER
        )
);

EDITED: At least for width, you should use WRAP_CONTENT or your navigation drawer, app icon, etc. WON'T BE SHOWN (custom view shown on top of other views on action bar). This will occur especially when no action button is shown.

EDITED: Equivalent in xml layout:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:orientation="vertical">

This doesn't require LayoutParams to be specified.

actionBar.setCustomView(getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.action_bar_home, null);

Solution 4

Just a quick addition to Ahmad's answer. You can't use getSupportActionBar().setTitle anymore when using a custom view with a TextView. So to set the title when you have multiple Activities with this custom ActionBar (using this one xml), in your onCreate() method after you assign a custom view:

TextView textViewTitle = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.mytext);
textViewTitle.setText(R.string.title_for_this_activity);

Solution 5

Code here working for me.

    // Activity 
 public void setTitle(String title){
    getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
    getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
    TextView textView = new TextView(this);
    textView.setText(title);
    textView.setTextSize(20);
    textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
    textView.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
    textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
    textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));
    getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
    getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(textView);
} 

// Fragment
public void setTitle(String title){
    ((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
    ((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
    TextView textView = new TextView(getActivity());
    textView.setText(title);
    textView.setTextSize(20);
    textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
    textView.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
    textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
    textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));
    ((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
    ((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(textView);
}

View more solutions

Comments

[ᴛʜᴇᴘᴀᴛᴇʟ]

This is a VERY old question. However, the only solution I see below is to create a custom action bar. So here is the solution without creating a custom action bar. stackoverflow.com/a/42465266/3866010 hope it helps someone

[Sourabh Saldi]

Almost 8 years after i asked this question , using the answer again :D

[Sourabh Saldi]

how to add custom back button image to this?

[alfongj]

For me the result was the actionbar was a bit displaced to right or left depending on the action buttons I was showing. To fix it, I just set the layout_width to "WRAP_CONTENT"

[Tom Naessens]

Pepillo's solution did not work for me, as the content wasn't centered anymore at all. I could solve this by adding android:layout_gravity="center" to the LinearLayout.

[Sergii Pechenizkyi]

I was needed to add ActionBar.LayoutParams with match_parent parameter to get customView layout actually centered. Check out code snippet from this answer.

[Ahmad]

@plastiv hmm not a bad idea either.

[Mitesh Shah]

@Ahmad how to tackle back navigation??

[Someone Somewhere]

Note: Android support library v7 does contain a function getSupportActionBar(), so it's not just limited to Action Bar Sherlock

[Nezam]

the title doesnt change now with setTitle

[Sufian]

@Nezam it's an expected behaviour. Try ((TextView)actionBar.getCustomView().findViewById(R.id.textV‌​iew1)).setText("new title");, where textView1 is your TextView's ID in your CustomView.

[Admin]

how to add back button in this code? getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true); not working

[Sufian]

@Jamm is it not showing or it clicks but doesn't work?

[Someone Somewhere]

this doesn't work - maybe because I have the navigation menu button showing ?

[Someone Somewhere]

is vertical orientation in this solution even correct?? The results don't look like it ...

[sashoalm]

"I'm set ActionBar.LayoutParams..." - that doesn't make sense. Also, please format your code.

[djdance]

Hah, plz do not beat 曲连强, his setDisplayOptions example helps me to add centered title AND show home button

[Mohammad Imran]

FYI , If you will add menu items, title will not be exactly centered.

[DominicM]

If there are menu items it won't be centered correctly. To really always have the title centered add "WRAP_CONTENT" to the LinearLayout and move the android:layout_gravity="center" from the TextView to the LinearLayout.

[Jose Manuel Abarca Rodríguez]

What is "R.layout.action_bar_title"? I can't find it.

[Aditya]

same issue stackoverflow.com/questions/31803463/…

[AndrewBramwell]

Simple, and it works! quotehd.com/imagequotes/authors39/tmb/…

[Aditya Vyas-Lakhan]

can any one tell me that after using this answer my drawer icon is not visible in my app...what is the issue?

[Ruchir Baronia]

@AndrewBramwell getActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUST‌​OM); is throwing a null pointer exception

[Ruchir Baronia]

Do you guys know how I can fix this?

[Ajay Kulkarni]

What is "R.layout.action_bar_title"? Explain it. Do I need to register that custom xml in manifests.xml

[Khan]

java.lang.NullPointerException ;)

[Karl Jamoralin]

If you want to add the back button, you need to place getsupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true) after setting the custom view

[Kostadin]

Other problem with centering horizontal can provoked by "match_parent". After replacing it with "wrap_content"

[Deep Lathia]

Why do we need to create a params object?? Can we not specify the gravity in the external layout file that we're assigning to the ActionBar.

[turbandroid]

check you app theme!!

[Sunil Chaudhary]

what if i am extending my class with FragmentActivity??

[Anderson Spencer]

was looking for something like this, BINGO!