How to center align the cells of a UICollectionView?

Question

I am currently using UICollectionView for the user interface grid, and it works fine. However, I\'d like to be enable horizontal scrolling. The grid supports 8

Answer 1

For those looking for a solution to center-aligned, dynamic-width collectionview cells, as I was, I ended up modifying Angel's answer for a left-aligned version to create a center-aligned subclass for UICollectionViewFlowLayout.

CenterAlignedCollectionViewFlowLayout

// NOTE: Doesn't work for horizontal layout!
class CenterAlignedCollectionViewFlowLayout: UICollectionViewFlowLayout {
    
    override func layoutAttributesForElements(in rect: CGRect) -> [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]? {
        guard let superAttributes = super.layoutAttributesForElements(in: rect) else { return nil }
        // Copy each item to prevent "UICollectionViewFlowLayout has cached frame mismatch" warning
        guard let attributes = NSArray(array: superAttributes, copyItems: true) as? [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes] else { return nil }
        
        // Constants
        let leftPadding: CGFloat = 8
        let interItemSpacing = minimumInteritemSpacing
        
        // Tracking values
        var leftMargin: CGFloat = leftPadding // Modified to determine origin.x for each item
        var maxY: CGFloat = -1.0 // Modified to determine origin.y for each item
        var rowSizes: [[CGFloat]] = [] // Tracks the starting and ending x-values for the first and last item in the row
        var currentRow: Int = 0 // Tracks the current row
        attributes.forEach { layoutAttribute in
            
            // Each layoutAttribute represents its own item
            if layoutAttribute.frame.origin.y >= maxY {
                
                // This layoutAttribute represents the left-most item in the row
                leftMargin = leftPadding
                
                // Register its origin.x in rowSizes for use later
                if rowSizes.count == 0 {
                    // Add to first row
                    rowSizes = [[leftMargin, 0]]
                } else {
                    // Append a new row
                    rowSizes.append([leftMargin, 0])
                    currentRow += 1
                }
            }
            
            layoutAttribute.frame.origin.x = leftMargin
            
            leftMargin += layoutAttribute.frame.width + interItemSpacing
            maxY = max(layoutAttribute.frame.maxY, maxY)
            
            // Add right-most x value for last item in the row
            rowSizes[currentRow][1] = leftMargin - interItemSpacing
        }
        
        // At this point, all cells are left aligned
        // Reset tracking values and add extra left padding to center align entire row
        leftMargin = leftPadding
        maxY = -1.0
        currentRow = 0
        attributes.forEach { layoutAttribute in
            
            // Each layoutAttribute is its own item
            if layoutAttribute.frame.origin.y >= maxY {
                
                // This layoutAttribute represents the left-most item in the row
                leftMargin = leftPadding
                
                // Need to bump it up by an appended margin
                let rowWidth = rowSizes[currentRow][1] - rowSizes[currentRow][0] // last.x - first.x
                let appendedMargin = (collectionView!.frame.width - leftPadding  - rowWidth - leftPadding) / 2
                leftMargin += appendedMargin
                
                currentRow += 1
            }
            
            layoutAttribute.frame.origin.x = leftMargin
            
            leftMargin += layoutAttribute.frame.width + interItemSpacing
            maxY = max(layoutAttribute.frame.maxY, maxY)
        }
        
        return attributes
    }
}