Is it possible to write vertically in a textview in android?

You can set your textview as you would normally do

for example:

 <TextView android:id="@+id/txtview"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" />

and write a function in your activity to

• reverse the characters in your text
• insert \n after every characters

and then set the text to the TextView.

If you dont want to insert the \n, you will have to set the size of android:layout_width and play with font size not to have 2 characters fitting on the same line and no truncation

Edit If I have understood you correctly, you can get what you want by using animation.

For example

Under res/anim/myanim.xml:

<rotate  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
           android:fromDegrees="0" 
           android:toDegrees="-90"
           android:pivotX="50%"
           android:duration="0" />

You will have to play with this file to define where you want your text view to be placed.

In your activity:

  TextView t = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtview);
  String txt = "Stackoverflow";         
  t.setText(txt);

  RotateAnimation ranim = (RotateAnimation)AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.myanim);
  ranim.setFillAfter(true); //For the textview to remain at the same place after the rotation
  t.setAnimation(ranim);

Worked for me:

public class VerticalTextView extends TextView {

    private int _width, _height;
    private final Rect _bounds = new Rect();

    public VerticalTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    public VerticalTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public VerticalTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onMeasure(int widthMeasureSpec, int heightMeasureSpec) {
        super.onMeasure(widthMeasureSpec, heightMeasureSpec);
        // vise versa
        _height = getMeasuredWidth();
        _width = getMeasuredHeight();
        setMeasuredDimension(_width, _height);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
        canvas.save();

        canvas.translate(_width, _height);
        canvas.rotate(-90);

        TextPaint paint = getPaint();
        paint.setColor(getTextColors().getDefaultColor());

        String text = text();

        paint.getTextBounds(text, 0, text.length(), _bounds);
        canvas.drawText(text, getCompoundPaddingLeft(), (_bounds.height() - _width) / 2, paint);

        canvas.restore();
    }

    private String text() {
        return super.getText().toString();
    }
}

xml:

<VerticalTextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="left|center_vertical"
            android:background="@color/feedback_background"
            android:padding="4dip"
            android:text="@string/feedback"
            android:textColor="@color/feedback_text_color"
            android:textSize="@dimen/text_xlarge" />