Android - Difference between Gridlayout and Staggered Gridlayout

Grid View : It is is a ViewGroup that displays items in a two-dimensional, scrollable grid. In this each Grid is of same size (Height and width). Grid View shows symmetric items in view.

Staggered Grid View : It is basically an extension to Grid View but in this each Grid is of varying size(Height and width). Staggered Grid View shows asymmetric items in view.

Tutorial to implement Staggered Grid View :

1. Staggered Grid View
2. Pinterest Masonry layout Staggered Grid View

My time at Oodles Technologies taught me about staggered. I'll share that.

StaggeredGridLayout is a LayoutManager, it is just like a GridView but in this grid each view have its own size (height and width). It supports both vertical and horizontal layouts.

Below are some basic steps to create a staggered grid:

1) Create a view.

As we know StaggeredGrid is not a direct view, it is a LayoutManager that lays out children in a staggered grid formation. We use RecyclerView as a view for the staggerd grid. Here is our RecyclerView in layout:

<RelativeLayout 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">

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/favPlaces"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
    
</RelativeLayout>

2) Set StaggeredGridLayout LayoutManager.

Once our view is ready, let's use LayoutManager to create grids on the view:

RecyclerView favPlaces = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.favPlaces);
StaggeredGridLayoutManager layoutManager = new StaggeredGridLayoutManager(2,StaggeredGridLayoutManager.VERTICAL);
layoutManager.setGapStrategy(StaggeredGridLayoutManager.GAP_HANDLING_NONE);
favPlaces.setLayoutManager(layoutManager);
favPlaces.setHasFixedSize(true);

3) Adapter to inflate the StaggeredGrid views.

To inflate the data in form of a grid, we first need a layout which will represent that data. We are using CardView for this and the layout is:

<LinearLayout 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"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <android.support.v7.widget.CardView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:cardcornerradius="4dp"
        app:cardusecompatpadding="true">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/placePic"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:adjustviewbounds="true"
                android:scaletype="fitXY" />

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/placeName"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:gravity="center"
                android:textsize="16sp" />

        </LinearLayout>

    </android.support.v7.widget.CardView>

</LinearLayout>

After we setup our all the basic steps, it's time to complete our main activity. Here is the complete code of MainActivity:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
 
    int placeImage[]= {R.drawable.agattia_airport_lakshadweep,R.drawable.nainital,R.drawable.goa,
            R.drawable.lotus_temple,R.drawable.valley_of_flowers,R.drawable.ranikhet,R.drawable.dehradun,R.drawable.nainital1};
 
    String placeName[]= {"Lakshadweep, India","Nainital, India","Goa, India","Lotus-Temple, India","Valley-Of-Flowers, India","Ranikhet, India",
    "Dehradun, India","Nainital, India"};
 
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        RecyclerView favPlaces = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.favPlaces);
        StaggeredGridLayoutManager layoutManager = new StaggeredGridLayoutManager(2,StaggeredGridLayoutManager.VERTICAL);
        layoutManager.setGapStrategy(StaggeredGridLayoutManager.GAP_HANDLING_NONE);
        favPlaces.setLayoutManager(layoutManager);
        favPlaces.setHasFixedSize(true);
        ArrayList<PlaceDetails> placeList = getPlaces();
 
        StaggeredAdapter staggeredAdapter = new StaggeredAdapter(placeList);
        favPlaces.setAdapter(staggeredAdapter);
    }
 
    private ArrayList<PlaceDetails> getPlaces() {
        ArrayList<PlaceDetails> details = new ArrayList<>();
        for (int index=0; index<placeImage.length;index++){
            details.add(new PlaceDetails(placeImage[index],placeName[index]));
        }
        return details;
    }
}