'How to achieve overlap/negative margin on Constraint Layout?

Is it possible to achieve negative margin on constraint layout to achieve overlap? I am trying to have a image centered on the layout and have a Text view such that it overlaps a by x dp. I tried setting negative margin value but no luck. It would be great if there is a way to achieve this.

Solution 1:^[1]

Another way is using translationX or translationY like this:

  <ImageView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
                android:translationX="25dp"
                app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
                app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"/>

it will work like android:layout_marginRight="-25dp"

Solution 2:^[2]

Negative margins have never been officially supported in RelativeLayout. Negative margins will not be supported in ConstraintLayout. [...]

-- Romain Guy on Jun 8, 2016

Follow these two issues:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=212499 https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=234866

Solution 3:^[3]

This is what I figured out after hours of trying to find a solution.

Let us consider two images, image1 and image2. Image2 is to be placed on top of image1 positioned to the bottom-right side.

Overlapping Views Example

We can use Space widget for overlapping views.

Constraint the Space widget's four sides with the four sides of the image1 respectively. For this example, constraint the image2's left side with the Space widget's right side and the image2's top side with the Space widget's bottom side. This will tie image2 with the Space widget and since the Space widget is constrained from all the sides, we can define required horizontal or vertical bias which will move image2 as required.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".Player">
 <ImageView
     android:id="@+id/image1"
     android:layout_width="250dp"
     android:layout_height="167dp"
     android:src="@android:color/holo_green_dark"
     app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
     app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
     app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
 <Space
     android:id="@+id/space"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="@+id/image1"
     app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/image1"
     app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.82"
     app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/image1"
     app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/image1"
     app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.62" />
 <ImageView
     android:id="@+id/image2"
     android:layout_width="82dp"
     android:layout_height="108dp"
     android:src="@android:color/holo_green_light"
     app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/space"
     app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/space" />
 </android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Additionally, to position image2 on the center-bottom of image1, we can constraint image2's left and right sides with Space widget's left and right sides respectively. Similarly, we can place image2 anywhere by changing image2's constraints with Space widget.

Solution 4:^[4]

I found a way to do it much simpler.

Basically have the ImageView, then on the Text View add top constraint to match the top constraint of the image and just add the margin top of the TextView to match to achieve the -ve margin type behavior.

Solution 5:^[5]

This will help many

In my case i want my design like this:

Means i want my image is display half of their width so the basically i need negative margin of half of the actual image width but my whole layout in constraint layout and constraint layout does not allowed negative margin so i achieved this with below code

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <ImageView
        android:layout_width="100dp"
        android:layout_height="100dp"
        android:scaleType="centerCrop"
        android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher_background"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@id/guideline"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.Guideline
        android:id="@+id/guideline"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        app:layout_constraintGuide_begin="50dp" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

So that ImageView will end at the starting of the guideline. and the effect is same as like negative margin at the start of 50dp.

And also if your view's width is not fixed and it's in percentage so that you can place guideline with percentage and achieve whatever effect you want

Happy Coding:)

Solution 6:^[6]

You only need to use Space widget in your layout

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">

<Space
    android:id="@+id/negative_margin"
    android:layout_width="16dp"
    android:layout_height="16dp"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintRight_toLeftOf="parent"/>

<Button
    android:id="@+id/button"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Widget who needs negative margin"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/negative_margin"
    app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="@+id/negative_margin" />

Solution 7:^[7]

Place Background View Behind Subject View

I wanted to use negative margin to add a view behind a subject view that is proportionally bigger than the subject view. The solution I found was to scale android:scaleX="1.2" and android:scaleY="1.2" the background view while constraining it to all sides of the subject.

<View
   android:id="@+id/subjectBackground"
   android:layout_width="0dp"
   android:layout_height="0dp"
   android:scaleY="1.2"
   android:scaleX="1.2"
   app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="@+id/subjectView"
   app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/subjectView"
   app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/subjectView"
   app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/subjectView" />

Solution 8:^[8]

This is an old question yet very much asked, the fastest way to achieve this is by constraining the top and bottom to the side of the view you want to anchor to, like so:

        <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatImageView
        android:layout_width="55dp"
        android:layout_height="55dp"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="@+id/parent_view_id"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/parent_view_id"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.5"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent" />

This will center it in the bottom line of the view, centered horizontally.

Solution 9:^[9]

One can try this way, this is much simpler

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout 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"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    tools:context=".MyProfileFragment">

 
    <ImageView

        android:id="@+id/imageViewUserPic"
        android:layout_width="@dimen/dp60"
        android:src="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        android:layout_margin="20dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    </ImageView>


    <ImageView

        android:id="@+id/imageViewEdit"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="@+id/imageViewUserPic"
        android:src="@drawable/ic_edit_red_round"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/imageViewUserPic"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    </ImageView>



</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

The layout will be like this..

Solution 10:^[10]

this is my soluation

<com.oven.test.avatar
 android:id="@+id/imageview_a"
 android:layout_width="128dp"
 android:layout_height="128dp"
 android:layout_marginTop="28dp"
 app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
 app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
 app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"/>

<com.oven.test.smallicon
    android:id="@+id/small_icon_overlap_a"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginTop="30dp"
    app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="@+id/imageview_a"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/imageview_a"
    app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="1"
    android:layout_marginBottom="20dp"/>

Solution 11:^[11]

Using translationX and translationY may works for your situation.

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tvText"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="text"
    android:translationX="-15dp"
    android:translationY="10dp"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/imageView"
    app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="@+id/imageView" />

Solution 12:^[12]

A Simple Way.

I'm not sure best way.

Just wrap using LinearLayout

<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
>
 <View
 android:layout_width="wrap_content"
 android:layout_marginLeft="-20dp"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</LinearLayout>

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1	Amir Khorsandi
Solution 2	Community
Solution 3	prisar
Solution 4	bond
Solution 5	Vijay Makwana
Solution 6	Hagar Magdy
Solution 7	Neal Soni
Solution 8	Ahmed Awad
Solution 9	Tausif
Solution 10	Yawen Ou
Solution 11	burak isik
Solution 12

'How to achieve overlap/negative margin on Constraint Layout?

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