The base LayoutParams class just describes how big the view wants to be for both width and height. For each dimension, it can specify one of:
FILL_PARENT
(renamedMATCH_PARENT
in API Level 8 and higher), which means that the view wants to be as big as its parent (minus padding)WRAP_CONTENT
, which means that the view wants to be just big enough to enclose its content (plus padding) an exact number
There are subclasses of LayoutParams for different subclasses of ViewGroup. For example, AbsoluteLayout has its own subclass of LayoutParams which adds an X and Y value.