Limit height of ListView on Android

I solved this problem in code, setting height of listview only if it has more than 5 items in it:

if(adapter.getCount() > 5){
        View item = adapter.getView(0, null, listView);
        item.measure(0, 0);         
        ViewGroup.LayoutParams params = new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, (int) (5.5 * item.getMeasuredHeight()));
        listView.setLayoutParams(params);
}

Notice that I set the max height to 5.5 times the height of a single item, so the user will know for sure there is some scrolling to do! :)

I had this exact issue and to solve it I created two seperate LinearLayouts to house the ListView and Button respectively. From there I put both in another Linear Layout and set that container's android:orientation to vertical. I also set the weight of the the LinearLayout that housed the ListView to 0.1 but I dont know if that has any effect. From there, you can set the height of the bottom container (that has your button) to whatever height you would like.

EDIT this is what i mean:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight="0.1"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/ListView01"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:dividerHeight="2px"></ListView>
</LinearLayout>

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="45px"
    android:background="@drawable/drawable"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/moreButton"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:background="@drawable/btn_more2"
        android:paddingRight="20px" />

</LinearLayout>

The above solution will fix the button the the bottom of the screen.

---

To have the button float at the bottom of the list, change the height of ListView01 to wrap_content:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical">

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight="0.1"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/ListView01"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:dividerHeight="2px"></ListView>
</LinearLayout>

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="45px"
    android:background="@drawable/drawable"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/moreButton"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:background="@drawable/btn_more2"
        android:paddingRight="20px" />
</LinearLayout>