How to align views at the bottom of the screen?

Question

Here's my layout code;

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

    <TextView android:text="@string/welcome" 
        android:id="@+id/TextView" 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    </TextView>

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

            <EditText android:id="@+id/EditText" 
                android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            </EditText>

            <Button android:text="@string/label_submit_button" 
                android:id="@+id/Button" 
                android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            </Button>

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

What this looks like is on the left and what I want it to look like is on the right.

The obvious answer is to set the TextView to fill_parent on height but this causes no room to be left for the button or entry field. Essentially the issue is that I want the submit button and the text entry to be a fixed height at the bottom and the text view to fill the rest of the space, similarly in the horizontal Linear layout I want the submit button to wrap its content and for the text entry to fill the rest of the space.

If the first item in a Linear Layout is told to fill_parent it does exactly that, leaving no room for other items, how do I get an item which is first in a linear layout to fill all space apart from the minimum required by the rest of the items in the layout?

EDIT:

Relative Layouts were indeed the answer - Thank you!

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

    <TextView 
        android:text="@string/welcome" 
        android:id="@+id/TextView"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true">
    </TextView>

    <RelativeLayout 
        android:id="@+id/InnerRelativeLayout"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" >

        <Button 
            android:text="@string/label_submit_button" 
            android:id="@+id/Button"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true" 
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        </Button>

        <EditText 
            android:id="@+id/EditText" 
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_toLeftOf="@id/Button"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        </EditText>

    </RelativeLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

I think you should try a relative layout.
If you have a relative layout that fills the whole screen you should be able to use android:layout_alignParentBottom to move the button to the bottom of the screen.

If your views at the bottom are not shown in a relative layout then maybe the layout above it takes all the space. In this case you can put the view that should be at the bottom, first in your layout file and position the rest of the layout above the views with android:layout_above. This enable the bottom view to take as much space as it needs and the rest of the layout can fill all the rest of the screen.

Answer 2

You don't even need to nest the second relative layout inside the first one. Simply use the android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" in the Button and EditText.