What constant can I use for the default Aqua space in Autolayout?

Question

According to the Cocoa Auto Layout Guide, I can use a dash in the visual constraint format language to \"denote the standard Aqua space:\"

[self addConstrain         


        

Answer 1

For iOS users:

#import "NSLayoutConstraint+StandardOffsets.h"

@implementation NSLayoutConstraint (StandardOffsets)

+ (CGFloat)standardConstantBetweenSiblings
{
    static CGFloat value;

    if(!isnormal(value)) {
        UIView *view = [UIView new] ;
        NSLayoutConstraint* constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSiblings = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"[view]-[view]"  options:0  metrics:nil  views:NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(view) ] [0] ;
        value = constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSiblings.constant ;    // 8.0
    }
    return value;
}

+ (CGFloat)standardConstantBetweenSuperview
{
    static CGFloat value;

    if(!isnormal(value)) {
        UIView *view = [UIView new] ;
        UIView *superview = [UIView new] ;
        [superview addSubview:view] ;
        NSLayoutConstraint* constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSuperview = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"[view]-|"  options:0  metrics:nil  views:NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(view) ] [0] ;
        value = constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSuperview.constant ;    // 20.0
    }
    return value;
}

@end

PS: I entered a bugreport that no constant is offered in the header files!

Answer 2

Based on John Sauer's answer, I wound up writing a couple methods on an NSLayoutConstraint category to find the constants:

• +standardAquaSpaceConstraintFromItem:toItem: returns a single NSLayoutConstraint constructed using the visual format language; it asserts that the array of constraints generated from the format has exactly one item, then gets that item and gives it back.
• +standardAquaSpaceFromItem:toItem: pulls the constant out of the constraint from the previous method and returns it as a CGFloat.

This way, I can either get the constant value myself if I need to do computations, or just get a single layout constraint with the right spacing (e.g. for assigning to a constraint @property or directly adding to my view).

Answer 3

I've found the "standard Aqua space" to be 8.0 between sibling views, and 20.0 between a view and its superview.

NSView* view = [NSView new] ;
NSLayoutConstraint* constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSiblings = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"[view]-[view]"  options:0  metrics:nil  views:NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(view) ] [0] ;
CGFloat standardConstantBetweenSiblings = constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSiblings.constant ;    // 8.0

NSView* superview = [NSView new] ;
[superview addSubview:view] ;
NSLayoutConstraint* constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSuperview = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"[view]-|"  options:0  metrics:nil  views:NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(view) ] [0] ;
CGFloat standardConstantBetweenSuperview = constraintWithStandardConstantBetweenSuperview.constant ;    // 20.0