Evenly space multiple views within a container view

Question

Auto Layout is making my life difficult. In theory, it was going to be really useful when I switched, but I seem to fight it all of the time.

I\'ve made a demo proje

Answer 1

I have made a function that might help. This usage example :

 [self.view addConstraints: [NSLayoutConstraint fluidConstraintWithItems:NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(button1, button2, button3)
                                                                asString:@[@"button1", @"button2", @"button3"]
                                                               alignAxis:@"V"
                                                          verticalMargin:100
                                                        horizontalMargin:50
                                                             innerMargin:25]];

will cause that vertical distribution (sorry don't have the 10 reputation to embed images). And if you change the axis and some margin values :

alignAxis:@"H"
verticalMargin:120
horizontalMargin:20
innerMargin:10

You'll get that horizontal distribution.

I'm newbie in iOS but voilà !

EvenDistribution.h

@interface NSLayoutConstraint (EvenDistribution)

/**
 * Returns constraints that will cause a set of subviews
 * to be evenly distributed along an axis.
 */
+ (NSArray *)  fluidConstraintWithItems:(NSDictionary *) views
                               asString:(NSArray *) stringViews
                              alignAxis:(NSString *) axis
                         verticalMargin:(NSUInteger) vMargin
                       horizontalMargin:(NSUInteger) hMargin
                            innerMargin:(NSUInteger) inner;
@end

EvenDistribution.m

#import "EvenDistribution.h"

@implementation NSLayoutConstraint (EvenDistribution)

+ (NSArray *) fluidConstraintWithItems:(NSDictionary *) dictViews
                              asString:(NSArray *) stringViews
                             alignAxis:(NSString *) axis
                        verticalMargin:(NSUInteger) vMargin
                      horizontalMargin:(NSUInteger) hMargin
                           innerMargin:(NSUInteger) iMargin

{
    NSMutableArray *constraints = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity: dictViews.count];
    NSMutableString *globalFormat = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:@"%@:|-%d-",
                                     axis,
                                     [axis isEqualToString:@"V"] ? vMargin : hMargin
                                     ];



        for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < dictViews.count; i++) {

            if (i == 0)
                [globalFormat appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat: @"[%@]-%d-", stringViews[i], iMargin]];
            else if(i == dictViews.count - 1)
                [globalFormat appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat: @"[%@(==%@)]-", stringViews[i], stringViews[i-1]]];
            else
               [globalFormat appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat: @"[%@(==%@)]-%d-", stringViews[i], stringViews[i-1], iMargin]];

            NSString *localFormat = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@:|-%d-[%@]-%d-|",
                                     [axis isEqualToString:@"V"] ? @"H" : @"V",
                                     [axis isEqualToString:@"V"] ? hMargin : vMargin,
                                     stringViews[i],
                                     [axis isEqualToString:@"V"] ? hMargin : vMargin];

            [constraints addObjectsFromArray:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:localFormat
                                                                                     options:0
                                                                                     metrics:nil
                                                                                       views:dictViews]];


    }
    [globalFormat appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d-|",
                                [axis isEqualToString:@"V"] ? vMargin : hMargin
                                ]];

    [constraints addObjectsFromArray:[NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:globalFormat
                                                                             options:0
                                                                             metrics:nil
                                                                               views:dictViews]];

    return constraints;

}

@end