How to add space between items in android listview?

You wouldn't be able to achieve what you want as simple as that then.

Step one: Set the divider as transparent, and make the height a tad larger:

<ListView
    android:id="@+id/list"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:divider="@android:color/transparent"
    android:dividerHeight="8dp"/>

Step Two: In order to achieve the 'little line' effect, you can add a custom drawable as the list view item background, say the list view item is defined as 'list_item.xml':

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
<-- Add a Custom background to the parent container of the listview items -->
android:background="@drawable/list_item_selector"
android:orientation="vertical" >
<-- Rest of the item layout -->
</LinearLayout>

Of course, that item can be anything you like it to be, mine is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

<item>
  <shape 
    android:shape="rectangle">
        <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="@color/bg_gray" />
        <solid android:color="@android:color/white" />
    </shape>
</item>
<item android:bottom="1dp"> 
    <shape 
        android:shape="rectangle">
        <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#FFDDDDDD" />
        <solid android:color="#00000000" />
    </shape>
</item>
</layer-list>

But that would then disable the 'Holo Selector' effect, where whenever you click, or highlight an item on the listview, there is a Holo Blue color drawn over it, that's why if you notice on the list item background we didn't use a layer list drawable, we used a selector named 'list_item_selector'.

Here's the selector, which uses the layer list drawable when not pressed, and uses a Holo-blue color when pressed:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item 
    android:state_pressed="false"
    android:drawable="@drawable/list_item_bg2"        
    />
 <item android:state_pressed="true"
    android:drawable="@color/holo_blue"
    />
</selector>

EDIT for Comment

Absolutely possible, you can define a set height for list view items, however, it is recommended to set a minimum height, rather than a predefined height that never changes.

Say this is my list item layout:

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

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/grid_image"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"
    android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher" />

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/grid_text"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"
    android:gravity="center_vertical"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/grid_image"
    android:minHeight="48dp"
    android:padding="8dp"
    android:textIsSelectable="false" />

</RelativeLayout>

All needed would be,

Step One: Define the min height, or max height, as you prefer, in the dimens.xml file contained in the values/ folder. Why? Because the height should definitely change based on the layout, and you can define different dimens.xml for each device density.

in the dimens.xml, say:

<resources>

<!-- List Item Max and Min Height -->

    <dimen name="list_item_min_height">48dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="list_item_max_height">96dp</dimen>
    <dimen name="list_item_set_height">64dp</dimen>

</resources>

And then use whichever value for the parent LinearLayout of you list item's layout.

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

And that's it for that topic, now to center the text, it's even simpler:

• If you are using a TextView and is wrapped into a RelativeLayout, use: android:layout_centerVertical="true"

• If you are using a LinearLayout, use: android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"

and couple that with: NOTE This only works if you didn't set the height to wrap_content, otherwise it is irrelevant.

  android:gravity="center_vertical"

Hope that helps.

I don't know if I understand your question precisely. If you want the divider to be transparent so you see a peace of the background between each ListView so it gives a kind of 3D effect when scrolling. You could do it this way:

In your list_item xml give the LinearLayout the background color you want for example:

<LinearLayout 
android:id="@+id/listItem"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"    
android:padding="4dip"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:background="#FFFFFF"
>

Then give your ListView a background color like this:

<ListView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/fragmentListView"
android:layout_width="match_parent" 
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:divider="@android:color/transparent"
android:dividerHeight="8dip"
android:background="#0000FF"
android:cacheColorHint="@android:color/transparent"
android:drawSelectorOnTop="true"
/>

Now your ListView scrolls over your background

I hope this is what you wanted.

Also one more way to increase the spacing between the list items is that you add an empty view to your adapter code by providing the layout_height attribute with the spacing you require. For e.g. in order to increase the bottom spacing between your list items add this dummy view(empty view) to the end of your list items.

<View
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="15dp"/>

So this will provide a bottom spacing of 15 dp between list view items. You can directly add this if the parent layout is LinearLayout and orientation is vertical or take appropriate steps for other layout. Hope this helps :-)