[ios] Make a VStack fill the width of the screen in SwiftUI

With Swift 5.2 and iOS 13.4, according to your needs, you can use one of the following examples to align your VStack with top leading constraints and a full size frame.

Note that the code snippets below all result in the same display, but do not guarantee the effective frame of the VStack nor the number of View elements that might appear while debugging the view hierarchy.

1. Using frame(minWidth:idealWidth:maxWidth:minHeight:idealHeight:maxHeight:alignment:) method

The simplest approach is to set the frame of your VStack with maximum width and height and also pass the required alignment in frame(minWidth:idealWidth:maxWidth:minHeight:idealHeight:maxHeight:alignment:):

struct ContentView: View {

    var body: some View {
        VStack(alignment: .leading) {
            Text("Title")
                .font(.title)
            Text("Content")
                .font(.body)
        }
        .frame(
            maxWidth: .infinity,
            maxHeight: .infinity,
            alignment: .topLeading
        )
        .background(Color.red)
    }

}

As an alternative, if setting maximum frame with specific alignment for your Views is a common pattern in your code base, you can create an extension method on View for it:

extension View {

    func fullSize(alignment: Alignment = .center) -> some View {
        self.frame(
            maxWidth: .infinity,
            maxHeight: .infinity,
            alignment: alignment
        )
    }

}

struct ContentView : View {

    var body: some View {
        VStack(alignment: .leading) {
            Text("Title")
                .font(.title)
            Text("Content")
                .font(.body)
        }
        .fullSize(alignment: .topLeading)
        .background(Color.red)
    }

}

2. Using Spacers to force alignment

You can embed your VStack inside a full size HStack and use trailing and bottom Spacers to force your VStack top leading alignment:

struct ContentView: View {

    var body: some View {
        HStack {
            VStack(alignment: .leading) {
                Text("Title")
                    .font(.title)
                Text("Content")
                    .font(.body)

                Spacer() // VStack bottom spacer
            }

            Spacer() // HStack trailing spacer
        }
        .frame(
            maxWidth: .infinity,
            maxHeight: .infinity
        )
        .background(Color.red)
    }

}

3. Using a ZStack and a full size background View

This example shows how to embed your VStack inside a ZStack that has a top leading alignment. Note how the Color view is used to set maximum width and height:

struct ContentView: View {

    var body: some View {
        ZStack(alignment: .topLeading) {
            Color.red
                .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, maxHeight: .infinity)

            VStack(alignment: .leading) {
                Text("Title")
                    .font(.title)
                Text("Content")
                    .font(.body)
            }
        }
    }

}

4. Using GeometryReader

GeometryReader has the following declaration:

A container view that defines its content as a function of its own size and coordinate space. [...] This view returns a flexible preferred size to its parent layout.

The code snippet below shows how to use GeometryReader to align your VStack with top leading constraints and a full size frame:

struct ContentView : View {

    var body: some View {
        GeometryReader { geometryProxy in
            VStack(alignment: .leading) {
                Text("Title")
                    .font(.title)
                Text("Content")
                    .font(.body)
            }
            .frame(
                width: geometryProxy.size.width,
                height: geometryProxy.size.height,
                alignment: .topLeading
            )
        }
        .background(Color.red)
    }

}

5. Using overlay(_:alignment:) method

If you want to align your VStack with top leading constraints on top of an existing full size View, you can use overlay(_:alignment:) method:

struct ContentView: View {

    var body: some View {
        Color.red
            .frame(
                maxWidth: .infinity,
                maxHeight: .infinity
            )
            .overlay(
                VStack(alignment: .leading) {
                    Text("Title")
                        .font(.title)
                    Text("Content")
                        .font(.body)
                },
                alignment: .topLeading
            )
    }

}

Display: