LinearLayout not showing all its children

Question

After creating a LinearLayout with ImageViews as its children, I noticed that only the first row of items are shown. I thought the LinearLayout would automatically wrap its children onto a new line as necessary? The width seems fine but not the height.

Expected result

Expected blueprint (ImageView count is not to scale)

For some reason, when I create a LinearLayout inside another view, the width is shown correctly, but it never seems to adjust its height to fit & show all the children inside it.

Current result

<androidx.cardview.widget.CardView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@+id/cv_facilities">

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/ll_facilities"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:padding="10dp">

        <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/ll_titlerow"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="horizontal">

            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/iv_expandcollapsearrow"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginEnd="10dp" />

            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/iv_topicsymbol"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginEnd="10dp" />

            <LinearLayout
                android:id="@+id/ll_symbols"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:orientation="horizontal">
                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_a"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_language" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_b"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_pets" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_c"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_verified_user" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_d"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_transport" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_e"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_seat" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_f"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_fingerprint" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_g"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_areoplane_depart" />

                <ImageView
                    android:id="@+id/iv_symbol_h"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:src="@drawable/ic_areoplane_arrive" />
            </LinearLayout>
        </LinearLayout>
    </LinearLayout>
</androidx.cardview.widget.CardView>

Answer 1

This behavior of LinearLayout is "as intended": it will display its children in a horizontal or vertical line.

Since all of the child Views in your blueprint seem to be of a similar size, consider switching to GridLayout, it is available as androidx-library (e.g. androidx.gridlayout:gridlayout:1.0.0).

For child Views with varying dimensions, FlexboxLayout is a good alternative. It was introduced in a blog post in February 2017. There is a version for androidx available: 'com.google.android:flexbox:1.1.0'