Android Studio how to make a 2 column LinearLayout

LinearLayout is fine for what you are trying to achieve. Please look at the weight and orientation attributes of a LinearLayout object. Linear Layout

And what you want, you can do for example like this:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"android:orientation="vertical"android:layout_width="match_parent"android:layout_height="match_parent">    <LinearLayout        android:layout_width="match_parent"        android:layout_height="0dp"        android:layout_weight="1"        android:gravity="center">        <TextView            android:text="Whatever You Want Here"            android:layout_width="match_parent"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:gravity="center"            android:textSize="36sp"/>    </LinearLayout>    <LinearLayout        android:orientation="vertical"        android:layout_width="match_parent"        android:layout_height="0dp"        android:layout_weight="1">        <LinearLayout            android:orientation="horizontal"            android:layout_width="match_parent"            android:layout_height="0dp"            android:layout_weight="1"            android:gravity="center">            <Button                android:text="Button 1"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>            <Button                android:text="Button 2"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>        </LinearLayout>        <LinearLayout            android:orientation="horizontal"            android:layout_width="match_parent"            android:layout_height="0dp"            android:layout_weight="1"            android:gravity="center">            <Button                android:text="Button 3"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>            <Button                android:text="Button 4"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>        </LinearLayout>        <LinearLayout            android:orientation="horizontal"            android:layout_width="match_parent"            android:layout_height="0dp"            android:layout_weight="1"            android:gravity="center">            <Button                android:text="Button 5"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>            <Button                android:text="Button 6"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>        </LinearLayout>        <LinearLayout            android:orientation="horizontal"            android:layout_width="match_parent"            android:layout_height="0dp"            android:layout_weight="1"            android:gravity="center">            <Button                android:text="Button 7"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>            <Button                android:text="Button 8"                android:layout_width="0dp"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"                android:layout_weight="1"                android:gravity="center"/>        </LinearLayout>    </LinearLayout></LinearLayout>

Output:

And watch out, because nesting too many weight attributes may have some negative performance issues.

Alright guys, I managed to find a fix thanks to Vishwa's comment.However, I didn't actually find a way to make a LinearLayout have 2 columns.

Instead, I changed to a TableLayout and streched the colums 0 & 1 to take the whole screen. Heres how my XML ended up looking. (It has extra stuff in it to get my design)

<TableLayout    android:layout_width="wrap_content"    android:layout_height="match_parent"    android:layout_alignParentRight="true"    android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"    android:stretchColumns="0,1">    <TableRow        android:layout_width="match_parent"        android:paddingBottom="8dp"        android:layout_height="match_parent">        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Events"            android:id="@+id/eventButton"            android:layout_column="0"            android:background="#016eff"            android:layout_marginRight="8dp"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textStyle="normal"            android:textSize="40px" />        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Absentee"            android:id="@+id/absenteeButton"            android:layout_column="1"            android:background="#016eff"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textStyle="normal"            android:textSize="40px" />    </TableRow>    <TableRow        android:layout_width="match_parent"        android:paddingBottom="8dp"        android:layout_height="match_parent" >        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Contacts"            android:id="@+id/contactsButton"            android:layout_column="0"            android:background="#016eff"            android:layout_marginRight="8dp"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textStyle="normal"            android:textSize="40px" />        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Alerts"            android:id="@+id/alertButton"            android:layout_column="1"            android:background="#016eff"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textStyle="normal"            android:textSize="40px" />    </TableRow>    <TableRow        android:layout_width="match_parent"        android:paddingBottom="8dp"        android:layout_height="match_parent" >        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Links"            android:id="@+id/linksButton"            android:layout_column="0"            android:background="#016eff"            android:layout_marginRight="8dp"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textStyle="normal"            android:textSize="40px" />        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Newsletter"            android:id="@+id/newsletterButton"            android:layout_column="1"            android:background="#016eff"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textSize="40px"            android:textStyle="normal" />    </TableRow>    <TableRow        android:layout_width="match_parent"        android:paddingBottom="8dp"        android:layout_height="match_parent" >        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="Kamar"            android:id="@+id/kamarButton"            android:layout_column="0"            android:background="#016eff"            android:layout_marginRight="8dp"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textStyle="normal"            android:textSize="40px" />        <Button            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:text="News"            android:id="@+id/newsButton"            android:layout_column="1"            android:background="#016eff"            android:textColor="#ffffff"            android:textSize="40px"            android:textStyle="normal" />    </TableRow></TableLayout>

You just put a separate LinearLayout with android:orientation="horizontal" around each pair of buttons. Then the parent LinearLayaout should have android:orientation="vertical" and the weightsum should be in each horizontal LinearLayout.