In Android, there are two ways to display images on buttons. You can set the images to buttons in the xml layout file that you placed the Button widgets and you set the images to buttons programmatically in code. In this tip, I am going to show you how to set the images to buttons programmatically in code.
You can accomplish this task by using the setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds( Drawable left, Drawable top, drawable right, Drawable bottom) method. With the setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds, you can display an image to the left, above, to the right, or below the text of the button.

Now let's start with an example program. You will create a new Android project. Then modify the activity_main.xml file to add four Buttons as shown below.

<LinearLayout 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:paddingBottom= "@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
     android:paddingLeft=" @dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
     android:paddingRight= "@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
     android:paddingTop= "@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
     tools:context=".MainActivity"
     android:orientation="vertical"
     android:background="#28def0"
      >
  
     <Button
      
        android:id="@+id/bt1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#f8f8f8"
        android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
        
        >
      
     </Button>
     <Button
      
        android:id="@+id/bt2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#f8f8f8"
        android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
        >    
     </Button>
     
     <Button    
        android:id="@+id/bt3"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#f8f8f8"
        android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
        >
      
     </Button>
     <Button
      
        android:id="@+id/bt4"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#f8f8f8"
        
          >
      
     </Button>
  
  </LinearLayout>

   public void onStart(){
     	 
		super.onStart();
     	 Button bt1= (Button)findViewById(R.id.bt1);
     	 Button bt2= (Button)findViewById(R.id.bt2);
     	 Button bt3= (Button)findViewById(R.id.bt3);
     	 Button bt4= (Button)findViewById(R.id.bt4);
     	 //set text to buttons
     	 bt1.setText("Search");
     	 bt2.setText("Search");
     	 bt3.setText("Search");
     	 bt4.setText("Search");
     	 
  	    Drawable icon=this.getResources(). getDrawable( R.drawable.iconsearchtr);
  	    //show icon to the left of text
  	    bt1.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds( icon, null, null, null );
  	    //show icon above the text
  	    bt2.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds( null, icon, null, null );
  	    //show icon to the right of text
  	    bt3.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds( null, null, icon, null );
  	    //show icon below the text
  	    bt4.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds( null, null, null, icon );
  }
  

Posted by: Dara | post date: 06-10-2014 | Subject: Android Apps Development