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

Most of these solutions depend on there being an odd number of items so that you can take the middle item and center it. What if you have an even number of items that you still want to be evenly distributed? Here's a more general solution. This category will evenly distribute any number of items along either the vertical or horizontal axis.

Example usage to vertically distribute 4 labels within their superview:

[self.view addConstraints:
     [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsForEvenDistributionOfItems:@[label1, label2, label3, label4]
                                        relativeToCenterOfItem:self.view
                                                    vertically:YES]];

NSLayoutConstraint+EvenDistribution.h

@interface NSLayoutConstraint (EvenDistribution)

/**
 * Returns constraints that will cause a set of views to be evenly distributed horizontally
 * or vertically relative to the center of another item. This is used to maintain an even
 * distribution of subviews even when the superview is resized.
 */
+ (NSArray *) constraintsForEvenDistributionOfItems:(NSArray *)views
                             relativeToCenterOfItem:(id)toView
                                         vertically:(BOOL)vertically;

@end

NSLayoutConstraint+EvenDistribution.m

@implementation NSLayoutConstraint (EvenDistribution)

+(NSArray *)constraintsForEvenDistributionOfItems:(NSArray *)views
                           relativeToCenterOfItem:(id)toView vertically:(BOOL)vertically
{
    NSMutableArray *constraints = [NSMutableArray new];
    NSLayoutAttribute attr = vertically ? NSLayoutAttributeCenterY : NSLayoutAttributeCenterX;

    for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < [views count]; i++) {
        id view = views[i];
        CGFloat multiplier = (2*i + 2) / (CGFloat)([views count] + 1);
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraint = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:view
                                                                      attribute:attr
                                                                      relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                                         toItem:toView
                                                                      attribute:attr
                                                                     multiplier:multiplier
                                                                       constant:0];
        [constraints addObject:constraint];
    }

    return constraints;
}

@end