How do I make WRAP_CONTENT work on a RecyclerView

UPDATE

By Android Support Library 23.2 update, all WRAP_CONTENT should work correctly.

Please update version of a library in gradle file.

compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:23.2.0'

Original Answer

As answered on other question, you need to use original onMeasure() method when your recycler view height is bigger than screen height. This layout manager can calculate ItemDecoration and can scroll with more.

    public class MyLinearLayoutManager extends LinearLayoutManager {

public MyLinearLayoutManager(Context context, int orientation, boolean reverseLayout)    {
    super(context, orientation, reverseLayout);
}

private int[] mMeasuredDimension = new int[2];

@Override
public void onMeasure(RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, RecyclerView.State state,
                      int widthSpec, int heightSpec) {
    final int widthMode = View.MeasureSpec.getMode(widthSpec);
    final int heightMode = View.MeasureSpec.getMode(heightSpec);
    final int widthSize = View.MeasureSpec.getSize(widthSpec);
    final int heightSize = View.MeasureSpec.getSize(heightSpec);
    int width = 0;
    int height = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < getItemCount(); i++) {
        measureScrapChild(recycler, i,
                View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(i, View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED),
                View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(i, View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED),
                mMeasuredDimension);

        if (getOrientation() == HORIZONTAL) {
            width = width + mMeasuredDimension[0];
            if (i == 0) {
                height = mMeasuredDimension[1];
            }
        } else {
            height = height + mMeasuredDimension[1];
            if (i == 0) {
                width = mMeasuredDimension[0];
            }
        }
    }

    // If child view is more than screen size, there is no need to make it wrap content. We can use original onMeasure() so we can scroll view.
    if (height < heightSize && width < widthSize) {

        switch (widthMode) {
            case View.MeasureSpec.EXACTLY:
                width = widthSize;
            case View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST:
            case View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED:
        }

        switch (heightMode) {
            case View.MeasureSpec.EXACTLY:
                height = heightSize;
            case View.MeasureSpec.AT_MOST:
            case View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED:
        }

        setMeasuredDimension(width, height);
    } else {
        super.onMeasure(recycler, state, widthSpec, heightSpec);
    }
}

private void measureScrapChild(RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, int position, int widthSpec,
                               int heightSpec, int[] measuredDimension) {

   View view = recycler.getViewForPosition(position);

   // For adding Item Decor Insets to view
   super.measureChildWithMargins(view, 0, 0);
    if (view != null) {
        RecyclerView.LayoutParams p = (RecyclerView.LayoutParams) view.getLayoutParams();
        int childWidthSpec = ViewGroup.getChildMeasureSpec(widthSpec,
                    getPaddingLeft() + getPaddingRight() + getDecoratedLeft(view) + getDecoratedRight(view), p.width);
            int childHeightSpec = ViewGroup.getChildMeasureSpec(heightSpec,
                    getPaddingTop() + getPaddingBottom() + getPaddingBottom() + getDecoratedBottom(view) , p.height);
            view.measure(childWidthSpec, childHeightSpec);

            // Get decorated measurements
            measuredDimension[0] = getDecoratedMeasuredWidth(view) + p.leftMargin + p.rightMargin;
            measuredDimension[1] = getDecoratedMeasuredHeight(view) + p.bottomMargin + p.topMargin;
            recycler.recycleView(view);
        }
    }
}

original answer : https://stackoverflow.com/a/28510031/1577792


From Android Support Library 23.2.1 update, all WRAP_CONTENT should work correctly.

Please update version of a library in gradle file OR to further :

compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:23.2.1'

solved some issue like Fixed bugs related to various measure-spec methods

Check http://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/features.html#v7-recyclerview

you can check Support Library revision history


UPDATE 02.07.2020
This method may prevent recycling and should not be used on large data sets.

UPDATE 05.07.2019

If you are using RecyclerView inside a ScrollView, just change ScrollView to androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView. Inside this view there is no need to pack RecyclerView inside a RelativeLayout.

<androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <!-- other views -->

        <androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView
            android:id="@+id/list"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

        <!-- other views -->

    </LinearLayout>

</androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView>

Finally found the solution for this problem.

All you need to do is wrap the RecyclerView in a RelativeLayout. Maybe there are other Views which may also work.

<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/list"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

</RelativeLayout>

Here is the refined version of the class which seems to work and lacks problems other solutions have:

package org.solovyev.android.views.llm;

import android.content.Context;
import android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;

/**
 * {@link android.support.v7.widget.LinearLayoutManager} which wraps its content. Note that this class will always
 * wrap the content regardless of {@link android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView} layout parameters.
 *
 * Now it's impossible to run add/remove animations with child views which have arbitrary dimensions (height for
 * VERTICAL orientation and width for HORIZONTAL). However if child views have fixed dimensions
 * {@link #setChildSize(int)} method might be used to let the layout manager know how big they are going to be.
 * If animations are not used at all then a normal measuring procedure will run and child views will be measured during
 * the measure pass.
 */
public class LinearLayoutManager extends android.support.v7.widget.LinearLayoutManager {

    private static final int CHILD_WIDTH = 0;
    private static final int CHILD_HEIGHT = 1;
    private static final int DEFAULT_CHILD_SIZE = 100;

    private final int[] childDimensions = new int[2];

    private int childSize = DEFAULT_CHILD_SIZE;
    private boolean hasChildSize;

    @SuppressWarnings("UnusedDeclaration")
    public LinearLayoutManager(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("UnusedDeclaration")
    public LinearLayoutManager(Context context, int orientation, boolean reverseLayout) {
        super(context, orientation, reverseLayout);
    }

    public static int makeUnspecifiedSpec() {
        return View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
    }

    @Override
    public void onMeasure(RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, RecyclerView.State state, int widthSpec, int heightSpec) {
        final int widthMode = View.MeasureSpec.getMode(widthSpec);
        final int heightMode = View.MeasureSpec.getMode(heightSpec);

        final int widthSize = View.MeasureSpec.getSize(widthSpec);
        final int heightSize = View.MeasureSpec.getSize(heightSpec);

        final boolean exactWidth = widthMode == View.MeasureSpec.EXACTLY;
        final boolean exactHeight = heightMode == View.MeasureSpec.EXACTLY;

        final int unspecified = makeUnspecifiedSpec();

        if (exactWidth && exactHeight) {
            // in case of exact calculations for both dimensions let's use default "onMeasure" implementation
            super.onMeasure(recycler, state, widthSpec, heightSpec);
            return;
        }

        final boolean vertical = getOrientation() == VERTICAL;

        initChildDimensions(widthSize, heightSize, vertical);

        int width = 0;
        int height = 0;

        // it's possible to get scrap views in recycler which are bound to old (invalid) adapter entities. This
        // happens because their invalidation happens after "onMeasure" method. As a workaround let's clear the
        // recycler now (it should not cause any performance issues while scrolling as "onMeasure" is never
        // called whiles scrolling)
        recycler.clear();

        final int stateItemCount = state.getItemCount();
        final int adapterItemCount = getItemCount();
        // adapter always contains actual data while state might contain old data (f.e. data before the animation is
        // done). As we want to measure the view with actual data we must use data from the adapter and not from  the
        // state
        for (int i = 0; i < adapterItemCount; i++) {
            if (vertical) {
                if (!hasChildSize) {
                    if (i < stateItemCount) {
                        // we should not exceed state count, otherwise we'll get IndexOutOfBoundsException. For such items
                        // we will use previously calculated dimensions
                        measureChild(recycler, i, widthSpec, unspecified, childDimensions);
                    } else {
                        logMeasureWarning(i);
                    }
                }
                height += childDimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT];
                if (i == 0) {
                    width = childDimensions[CHILD_WIDTH];
                }
                if (height >= heightSize) {
                    break;
                }
            } else {
                if (!hasChildSize) {
                    if (i < stateItemCount) {
                        // we should not exceed state count, otherwise we'll get IndexOutOfBoundsException. For such items
                        // we will use previously calculated dimensions
                        measureChild(recycler, i, unspecified, heightSpec, childDimensions);
                    } else {
                        logMeasureWarning(i);
                    }
                }
                width += childDimensions[CHILD_WIDTH];
                if (i == 0) {
                    height = childDimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT];
                }
                if (width >= widthSize) {
                    break;
                }
            }
        }

        if ((vertical && height < heightSize) || (!vertical && width < widthSize)) {
            // we really should wrap the contents of the view, let's do it

            if (exactWidth) {
                width = widthSize;
            } else {
                width += getPaddingLeft() + getPaddingRight();
            }

            if (exactHeight) {
                height = heightSize;
            } else {
                height += getPaddingTop() + getPaddingBottom();
            }

            setMeasuredDimension(width, height);
        } else {
            // if calculated height/width exceeds requested height/width let's use default "onMeasure" implementation
            super.onMeasure(recycler, state, widthSpec, heightSpec);
        }
    }

    private void logMeasureWarning(int child) {
        if (BuildConfig.DEBUG) {
            Log.w("LinearLayoutManager", "Can't measure child #" + child + ", previously used dimensions will be reused." +
                    "To remove this message either use #setChildSize() method or don't run RecyclerView animations");
        }
    }

    private void initChildDimensions(int width, int height, boolean vertical) {
        if (childDimensions[CHILD_WIDTH] != 0 || childDimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT] != 0) {
            // already initialized, skipping
            return;
        }
        if (vertical) {
            childDimensions[CHILD_WIDTH] = width;
            childDimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT] = childSize;
        } else {
            childDimensions[CHILD_WIDTH] = childSize;
            childDimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT] = height;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void setOrientation(int orientation) {
        // might be called before the constructor of this class is called
        //noinspection ConstantConditions
        if (childDimensions != null) {
            if (getOrientation() != orientation) {
                childDimensions[CHILD_WIDTH] = 0;
                childDimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT] = 0;
            }
        }
        super.setOrientation(orientation);
    }

    public void clearChildSize() {
        hasChildSize = false;
        setChildSize(DEFAULT_CHILD_SIZE);
    }

    public void setChildSize(int childSize) {
        hasChildSize = true;
        if (this.childSize != childSize) {
            this.childSize = childSize;
            requestLayout();
        }
    }

    private void measureChild(RecyclerView.Recycler recycler, int position, int widthSpec, int heightSpec, int[] dimensions) {
        final View child = recycler.getViewForPosition(position);

        final RecyclerView.LayoutParams p = (RecyclerView.LayoutParams) child.getLayoutParams();

        final int hPadding = getPaddingLeft() + getPaddingRight();
        final int vPadding = getPaddingTop() + getPaddingBottom();

        final int hMargin = p.leftMargin + p.rightMargin;
        final int vMargin = p.topMargin + p.bottomMargin;

        final int hDecoration = getRightDecorationWidth(child) + getLeftDecorationWidth(child);
        final int vDecoration = getTopDecorationHeight(child) + getBottomDecorationHeight(child);

        final int childWidthSpec = getChildMeasureSpec(widthSpec, hPadding + hMargin + hDecoration, p.width, canScrollHorizontally());
        final int childHeightSpec = getChildMeasureSpec(heightSpec, vPadding + vMargin + vDecoration, p.height, canScrollVertically());

        child.measure(childWidthSpec, childHeightSpec);

        dimensions[CHILD_WIDTH] = getDecoratedMeasuredWidth(child) + p.leftMargin + p.rightMargin;
        dimensions[CHILD_HEIGHT] = getDecoratedMeasuredHeight(child) + p.bottomMargin + p.topMargin;

        recycler.recycleView(child);
    }
}

This is also available as a library. Link to relevant class.