How to center align the cells of a UICollectionView in Swift3.0?

Question

Description:

Answer for Objective-C and Swift2.0: How to center align the cells of a UICollectionView?

I usually would try to conver

Answer 1

func collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAtIndex section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {

let allCellWidth = KcellWidth * numberOfCell
let cellSpacingWidth = CellSpacing * (numberOfCell - 1)

let leftInset = (collectionViewWidth - CGFloat(allCellWidth + cellSpacingWidth)) / 2
let rightInset = leftInset

return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, leftInset, 0, rightInset)
}

Answer 2

You need to conform to UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout protocol to find the collectionView(_:layout:insetForSectionAt:) method, it is defined there. the following implementation works fine in swift 4 for a horizontal collectionView

extension YourViewController: UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout {
    func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAt section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {
        let cellWidth = CGFloat(integerLiteral: YourCellsWidth)
        let count = self.YourCollectionViewDataSource.count
        let top = CGFloat(integerLiteral: 0)    // I don't need to set top and bottom spacing
        let cellsAccumulatedWidth = CGFloat(integerLiteral: count) * cellWidth
        let cellsSpacingAccumulatedWidth = CGFloat(integerLiteral: (count - 1) * 5)
        let left = (self.collectionView.frame.size.width - cellsAccumulatedWidth - cellsSpacingAccumulatedWidth) / 2
        let bottom = top
        let right = left

        return UIEdgeInsetsMake(top, left, bottom, right);
    }
}

Answer 3

While rottenoats answer is great, it has an extra spacing bug and doesn't use much of the available swift 3 syntax. I've fixed that and reduced the number of dependencies to local variables.

func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAt section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {

    // Make sure that the number of items is worth the computing effort.
    guard let flowLayout = collectionViewLayout as? UICollectionViewFlowLayout,
        let dataSourceCount = collectionView.dataSource?.collectionView(collectionView, numberOfItemsInSection: section),
        dataSourceCount > 0 else {
            return .zero
    }


    let cellCount = CGFloat(dataSourceCount)
    let itemSpacing = flowLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing
    let cellWidth = flowLayout.itemSize.width + itemSpacing
    var insets = flowLayout.sectionInset


    // Make sure to remove the last item spacing or it will
    // miscalculate the actual total width.
    let totalCellWidth = (cellWidth * cellCount) - itemSpacing
    let contentWidth = collectionView.frame.size.width - collectionView.contentInset.left - collectionView.contentInset.right


    // If the number of cells that exist take up less room than the
    // collection view width, then center the content with the appropriate insets.
    // Otherwise return the default layout inset.
    guard totalCellWidth < contentWidth else {
        return insets
    }


    // Calculate the right amount of padding to center the cells.
    let padding = (contentWidth - totalCellWidth) / 2.0
    insets.left = padding
    insets.right = padding
    return insets
}

N.B.: This snippet only works for an horizontal scrolling but can easily be adjusted.

Answer 4

Use this solution for horizontal scrolling with the center align.

let totalCellWidth = Int(collectionView.frame.height * CGFloat(numberOfItems()))

        // if total width is greater than collection's width, then no need to align center
        if totalCellWidth > Int(collectionView.frame.width) {
            return UIEdgeInsets.zero
        }

        let totalSpacingWidth = cellSpacing * (numberOfItems() - 1)
        let leftInset = (collectionView.frame.width - CGFloat(totalCellWidth + totalSpacingWidth)) / 2
        let rightInset = leftInset
        return UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: leftInset, bottom: 0, right: rightInset)

Answer 5

This code should center horizontally any type of collection view even with extra items in Swift 4.0:

func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAt section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {
    let flowLayout = collectionViewLayout as! UICollectionViewFlowLayout
    let cellWidth: CGFloat = flowLayout.itemSize.width
    let cellSpacing: CGFloat = flowLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing
    let cellCount = CGFloat(collectionView.numberOfItems(inSection: section))
    var collectionWidth = collectionView.frame.size.width
    if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
        collectionWidth -= collectionView.safeAreaInsets.left + collectionView.safeAreaInsets.right
    }
    let totalWidth = cellWidth * cellCount + cellSpacing * (cellCount - 1)
    if totalWidth <= collectionWidth {
        let edgeInset = (collectionWidth - totalWidth) / 2
        return UIEdgeInsetsMake(flowLayout.sectionInset.top, edgeInset, flowLayout.sectionInset.bottom, edgeInset)
    } else {
        return flowLayout.sectionInset
    }
}

Don't forget if you are not subclassing UICollectionViewController, make sure your class conforms to UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout protocol