Spacer in Android Jetpack Compose

In Jetpack Compose, a Spacer is a blank element that is used to create a Space between two UI elements. Suppose, we have created Element 1 and we want to place Element 2 below Element 1 but with a top margin, we can declare a Spacer between the two elements.

So in this article, we will show you how you could implement a Spacer in Android using Jetpack Compose. Follow the below steps once the IDE is ready.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. While choosing the template, select Empty Compose Activity. If you do not find this template, try upgrading the Android Studio to the latest version. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Working with the MainActivity.kt file

Go to the MainActivity.kt file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.kt file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Kotlin

package com.geeksforgeeks.spacer

import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.activity.ComponentActivity
import androidx.activity.compose.setContent
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.*
import androidx.compose.material.*
import androidx.compose.runtime.Composable
import androidx.compose.ui.Alignment
import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier
import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color
import androidx.compose.ui.tooling.preview.Preview
import androidx.compose.ui.unit.dp
import androidx.compose.ui.unit.sp

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContent {
            // Calling the composable function
            // to display element and its contents
            MainContent()
        }
    }
}

// Creating a composable
// function to display Top Bar
@Composable
fun MainContent(){
    Scaffold(
        topBar = {
            TopAppBar(
            title = {Text(
                "GFG | Spacer Implementation",
                color = Color.White)},
            backgroundColor = Color(0xff0f9d58)
        ) },
        content = { MyContent()}
    )
}

// Creating a Composable function to create
// two Buttons and a Spacer between them.
// Calling this function as content in the above function
@Composable
fun MyContent(){
    Column(
        Modifier.fillMaxWidth().absolutePadding(10.dp, 100.dp, 10.dp, 0.dp), horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally) {

        // Creating Button 1
        Button(onClick = { /*TODO*/ },
            colors = ButtonDefaults.buttonColors(backgroundColor = Color(0XFF0F9D58)),
        ) {
            Text("Button 1", color = Color.White)
        }

        // Adding a Spacer of height 20dp
        Spacer(modifier = Modifier.height(20.dp))

        // Creating Button 2
        Button(onClick = { /*TODO*/ },
            colors = ButtonDefaults.buttonColors(backgroundColor = Color(0XFF0F9D58)),
        ) {
            Text("Button 2", color = Color.White)
        }

        // Adding a Spacer of height 200dp
        Spacer(modifier = Modifier.height(200.dp))

        // Adding a Text
        Text(text = "Hello Geek!", fontSize = 50.sp)
    }
}

// For displaying preview in the
// Android Studio IDE emulator
@Preview(showBackground = true)
@Composable
fun DefaultPreview() {
    MainContent()
}

Output:

You can see that Button 1 and Button 2 are separated by 20dp and Button 2 and Text are separated by 200dp.