Android – the difference between match_parent and fill_parent

Either attribute can be applied to View's (visual control) horizontal or vertical size. It's used to set a View or Layouts size based on either it's contents or the size of it's parent layout rather than explicitly specifying a dimension.

fill_parent (deprecated and renamed MATCH_PARENT in API Level 8 and higher)

Setting the layout of a widget to fill_parent will force it to expand to take up as much space as is available within the layout element it's been placed in. It's roughly equivalent of setting the dockstyle of a Windows Form Control to Fill.

Setting a top level layout or control to fill_parent will force it to take up the whole screen.

wrap_content

Setting a View's size to wrap_content will force it to expand only far enough to contain the values (or child controls) it contains. For controls -- like text boxes (TextView) or images (ImageView) -- this will wrap the text or image being shown. For layout elements it will resize the layout to fit the controls / layouts added as its children.

It's roughly the equivalent of setting a Windows Form Control's Autosize property to True.

Online Documentation

There's some details in the Android code documentation here.

From the Android Developer Documentation:

1. px
   > Pixels - corresponds to actual pixels on the screen.

2. in
   > Inches - based on the physical size of the screen.
   > 1 Inch = 2.54 centimeters

3. mm
   > Millimeters - based on the physical size of the screen.

4. pt
   > Points - 1/72 of an inch based on the physical size of the screen.

5. dp or dip
   > Density-independent Pixels - an abstract unit that is based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160 dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. Note: The compiler accepts both "dip" and "dp", though "dp" is more consistent with "sp".

6. sp
   > Scaleable Pixels OR scale-independent pixels - this is like the dp unit, but it is also scaled by the user's font size preference. It is recommended you use this unit when specifying font sizes, so they will be adjusted for both the screen density and the user's preference. Note, the Android documentation is inconsistent on what sp actually stands for, one doc says "scale-independent pixels", the other says "scaleable pixels".

From Understanding Density Independence In Android:

More info can be also be found in the Google Design Documentation.