67.1 The TableLayout and TableRow Layout Views
The purpose of the TableLayout container view is to allow user interface elements to be organized on the screen in a table format consisting of rows and columns. Each row within a TableLayout is occupied by a TableRow instance which, in turn, is divided into cells, with each cell containing a single child view (which may itself be a container with multiple view children).
The number of columns in a table is dictated by the row with the most columns and, by default, the width of each column is defined by the widest cell in that column. Columns may be configured to be shrinkable or stretchable (or both) such that they change in size relative to the parent TableLayout. In addition, a single cell may be configured to span multiple columns.
Consider the user interface layout shown in Figure 67-1:
From the visual appearance of the layout, it is difficult to identify the TableLayout structure used to design the interface...
