[ios] How to center align the cells of a UICollectionView?

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 items per page and when the total number of items are, say 4, this is how the items should be arranged with horizontal scroll direction enabled:

0 0 x x
0 0 x x

Here 0 -> Collection Item and x -> Empty Cells

Is there a way to make them center aligned like:

x 0 0 x
x 0 0 x

So that the content looks more clean?

Also the below arrangement might also be a solution I am expecting.

0 0 0 0
x x x x

Here is my solution with a few assumptions:

• there is only one section
• left and right insets are equal
• cell height is the same

Feel free to adjust to meet your needs.

Centered layout with variable cell width:

protocol HACenteredLayoutDelegate: UICollectionViewDataSource {
    func getCollectionView() -> UICollectionView
    func sizeOfCell(at index: IndexPath) -> CGSize
    func contentInsets() -> UIEdgeInsets
}

class HACenteredLayout: UICollectionViewFlowLayout {
    weak var delegate: HACenteredLayoutDelegate?
    private var cache = [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]()
    private var contentSize = CGSize.zero
    override var collectionViewContentSize: CGSize { return self.contentSize }

    required init(delegate: HACenteredLayoutDelegate) {
        self.delegate = delegate
        super.init()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    }

    override func invalidateLayout() {
        cache.removeAll()
        super.invalidateLayout()
    }

    override func prepare() {
        if cache.isEmpty && self.delegate != nil && self.delegate!.collectionView(self.delegate!.getCollectionView(), numberOfItemsInSection: 0) > 0 {
            let insets = self.delegate?.contentInsets() ?? UIEdgeInsets.zero
            var rows: [(width: CGFloat, count: Int)] = [(0, 0)]
            let viewWidth: CGFloat = UIScreen.main.bounds.width
            var y = insets.top
            var unmodifiedIndexes = [IndexPath]()
            for itemNumber in 0 ..< self.delegate!.collectionView(self.delegate!.getCollectionView(), numberOfItemsInSection: 0) {
                let indexPath = IndexPath(item: itemNumber, section: 0)
                let cellSize = self.delegate!.sizeOfCell(at: indexPath)
                let potentialRowWidth = rows.last!.width + (rows.last!.count > 0 ? self.minimumInteritemSpacing : 0) + cellSize.width + insets.right + insets.left
                if potentialRowWidth > viewWidth {
                    let leftOverSpace = max((viewWidth - rows[rows.count - 1].width)/2, insets.left)
                    for i in unmodifiedIndexes {
                        self.cache[i.item].frame.origin.x += leftOverSpace
                    }
                    unmodifiedIndexes = []
                    rows.append((0, 0))
                    y += cellSize.height + self.minimumLineSpacing
                }
                unmodifiedIndexes.append(indexPath)
                let attribute = UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes(forCellWith: indexPath)
                rows[rows.count - 1].count += 1
                rows[rows.count - 1].width += rows[rows.count - 1].count > 1 ? self.minimumInteritemSpacing : 0
                attribute.frame = CGRect(x: rows[rows.count - 1].width, y: y, width: cellSize.width, height: cellSize.height)
                rows[rows.count - 1].width += cellSize.width
                cache.append(attribute)
            }
            let leftOverSpace = max((viewWidth - rows[rows.count - 1].width)/2, insets.left)
            for i in unmodifiedIndexes {
                self.cache[i.item].frame.origin.x += leftOverSpace
            }
            self.contentSize = CGSize(width: viewWidth, height: y + self.delegate!.sizeOfCell(at: IndexPath(item: 0, section: 0)).height + insets.bottom)
        }
    }

    override func layoutAttributesForElements(in rect: CGRect) -> [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]? {
        var layoutAttributes = [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]()

        for attributes in cache {
            if attributes.frame.intersects(rect) {
                layoutAttributes.append(attributes)
            }
        }
        return layoutAttributes
    }

    override func layoutAttributesForItem(at indexPath: IndexPath) -> UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes? {
        if indexPath.item < self.cache.count {
            return self.cache[indexPath.item]
        }
        return nil
    }
}

Result:

Swift 2.0 Works fine for me!

 func collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAtIndex section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {
        let edgeInsets = (screenWight - (CGFloat(elements.count) * 50) - (CGFloat(elements.count) * 10)) / 2
        return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, edgeInsets, 0, 0);
    }

Where: screenWight: basically its my collection's width (full screen width) - I made constants: let screenWight:CGFloat = UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.width because self.view.bounds shows every-time 600 - coz of SizeClasses elements - array of cells 50 - my manual cell width 10 - my distance between cells

It's easy to calculate insets dynamically, this code will always center your cells:

NSInteger const SMEPGiPadViewControllerCellWidth = 332;

...

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout*)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section
{

    NSInteger numberOfCells = self.view.frame.size.width / SMEPGiPadViewControllerCellWidth;
    NSInteger edgeInsets = (self.view.frame.size.width - (numberOfCells * SMEPGiPadViewControllerCellWidth)) / (numberOfCells + 1);

    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, edgeInsets, 0, edgeInsets);
}

- (void)willRotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration
{
    [super willRotateToInterfaceOrientation:toInterfaceOrientation duration:duration];
    [self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout invalidateLayout];
}

Similar to other answers, this is a dynamic answer that should work for static sized cells. The one modification I made is that I put the padding on both sides. If I didn't do this, I experienced problems.

Objective-C

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewFlowLayout*)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section {

    NSInteger numberOfItems = [collectionView numberOfItemsInSection:section];
    CGFloat combinedItemWidth = (numberOfItems * collectionViewLayout.itemSize.width) + ((numberOfItems - 1) * collectionViewLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing);
    CGFloat padding = (collectionView.frame.size.width - combinedItemWidth) / 2;

    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, padding, 0, padding);
}

Swift

func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAt section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {
    let flowLayout = collectionViewLayout as! UICollectionViewFlowLayout
    let numberOfItems = CGFloat(collectionView.numberOfItems(inSection: section))
    let combinedItemWidth = (numberOfItems * flowLayout.itemSize.width) + ((numberOfItems - 1)  * flowLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing)
    let padding = (collectionView.frame.width - combinedItemWidth) / 2
    return UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: padding, bottom: 0, right: padding)
}

Also, if you are still are experiencing problems, make sure that you set both the minimumInteritemSpacing and minimumLineSpacing to the same values since these values seem to be interrelated.

UICollectionViewFlowLayout *flowLayout = (UICollectionViewFlowLayout *)self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout;
flowLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing = 20.0;
flowLayout.minimumLineSpacing = 20.0;

Based on user3676011 answer, I can suggest more detailed one with small correction. This solution works great on Swift 2.0.

enum CollectionViewContentPosition {
    case Left
    case Center
}

var collectionViewContentPosition: CollectionViewContentPosition = .Left

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

    if collectionViewContentPosition == .Left {
        return UIEdgeInsetsZero
    }

    // Center collectionView content

    let itemsCount: CGFloat = CGFloat(collectionView.numberOfItemsInSection(section))
    let collectionViewWidth: CGFloat = collectionView.bounds.width

    let itemWidth: CGFloat = 40.0
    let itemsMargin: CGFloat = 10.0

    let edgeInsets = (collectionViewWidth - (itemsCount * itemWidth) - ((itemsCount-1) * itemsMargin)) / 2

    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, edgeInsets, 0, 0)
}

There was an issue in

(CGFloat(elements.count) * 10))

where should be additional -1 mentioned.

Another way of doing this is setting the collectionView.center.x, like so:

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()

    if let
        collectionView = collectionView,
        layout = collectionView.collectionViewLayout as? UICollectionViewFlowLayout
    {
        collectionView.center.x = view.center.x + layout.sectionInset.right / 2.0
    }
}

In this case, only respecting the right inset which works for me.

The top solutions here did not work for me out-of-the-box, so I came up with this which should work for any horizontal scrolling collection view with flow layout and only one section:

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout *)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section
    {
    // Add inset to the collection view if there are not enough cells to fill the width.
    CGFloat cellSpacing = ((UICollectionViewFlowLayout *) collectionViewLayout).minimumLineSpacing;
    CGFloat cellWidth = ((UICollectionViewFlowLayout *) collectionViewLayout).itemSize.width;
    NSInteger cellCount = [collectionView numberOfItemsInSection:section];
    CGFloat inset = (collectionView.bounds.size.width - (cellCount * cellWidth) - ((cellCount - 1)*cellSpacing)) * 0.5;
    inset = MAX(inset, 0.0);
    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.0, inset, 0.0, 0.0);
    }

Working version of kgaidis's Objective C answer using Swift 3.0:

let flow = UICollectionViewFlowLayout()

func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAt section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {        
    let numberOfItems = collectionView.numberOfItems(inSection: 0)
    let combinedItemWidth:CGFloat = (CGFloat(numberOfItems) * flow.itemSize.width) + ((CGFloat(numberOfItems) - 1) * flow.minimumInteritemSpacing)
    let padding = (collectionView.frame.size.width - combinedItemWidth) / 2

    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, padding, 0, padding)
}

Not sure if this is new in Xcode 5 or not, but you can now open the Size Inspector through Interface Builder and set an inset there. That'll prevent you from having to write custom code to do this for you and should drastically increase the speed at which you find the proper offsets.

Here is how you can do it and it works fine

func refreshCollectionView(_ count: Int) {
    let collectionViewHeight = collectionView.bounds.height
    let collectionViewWidth = collectionView.bounds.width
    let numberOfItemsThatCanInCollectionView = Int(collectionViewWidth / collectionViewHeight)
    if numberOfItemsThatCanInCollectionView > count {
        let totalCellWidth = collectionViewHeight * CGFloat(count)
        let totalSpacingWidth: CGFloat = CGFloat(count) * (CGFloat(count) - 1)
        // leftInset, rightInset are the global variables which I am passing to the below function
        leftInset = (collectionViewWidth - CGFloat(totalCellWidth + totalSpacingWidth)) / 2;
        rightInset = -leftInset
    } else {
        leftInset = 0.0
        rightInset = -collectionViewHeight
    }
    collectionView.reloadData()
}

func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, insetForSectionAt section: Int) -> UIEdgeInsets {
    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, leftInset, 0, rightInset)
}

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
    }
}

My solution for static sized collection view cells which need to have padding on left and right-

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

    let flowLayout = (collectionViewLayout as! UICollectionViewFlowLayout)
    let cellSpacing = flowLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing
    let cellWidth = flowLayout.itemSize.width
    let cellCount = CGFloat(collectionView.numberOfItemsInSection(section))

    let collectionViewWidth = collectionView.bounds.size.width

    let totalCellWidth = cellCount * cellWidth
    let totalCellSpacing = cellSpacing * (cellCount - 1)

    let totalCellsWidth = totalCellWidth + totalCellSpacing

    let edgeInsets = (collectionViewWidth - totalCellsWidth) / 2.0

    return edgeInsets > 0 ? UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, edgeInsets, 0, edgeInsets) : UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, cellSpacing, 0, cellSpacing)
}

In Swift, the following will distribute cells evenly by applying the correct amount of padding on the sides of each cell. Of course, you need to know/set your cell width first.

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

        var cellWidth : CGFloat = 110;

        var numberOfCells = floor(self.view.frame.size.width / cellWidth);
        var edgeInsets = (self.view.frame.size.width - (numberOfCells * cellWidth)) / (numberOfCells + 1);

        return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, edgeInsets, 60.0, edgeInsets);
}

I have a tag bar in my app which uses an UICollectionView & UICollectionViewFlowLayout, with one row of cells center aligned.

To get the correct indent, you subtract the total width of all the cells (including spacing) from the width of your UICollectionView, and divide by two.

[........Collection View.........]
[..Cell..][..Cell..]
                   [____indent___] / 2

=

[_____][..Cell..][..Cell..][_____]

The problem is this function -

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout*)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section;

is called before...

- (UICollectionViewCell *)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView cellForItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath;

...so you can't iterate over your cells to determine the total width.

Instead you need to calculate the width of each cell again, in my case I use [NSString sizeWithFont: ... ] as my cell widths are determined by the UILabel itself.

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout*)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section
{
    CGFloat rightEdge = 0;
    CGFloat interItemSpacing = [(UICollectionViewFlowLayout*)collectionViewLayout minimumInteritemSpacing];

    for(NSString * tag in _tags)
        rightEdge += [tag sizeWithFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:14]].width+interItemSpacing;

    // To center the inter spacing too
    rightEdge -= interSpacing/2;

    // Calculate the inset
    CGFloat inset = collectionView.frame.size.width-rightEdge;

    // Only center align if the inset is greater than 0
    // That means that the total width of the cells is less than the width of the collection view and need to be aligned to the center.
    // Otherwise let them align left with no indent.

    if(inset > 0)
        return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, inset/2, 0, 0);
    else
        return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 0);
}

Put this into your collection view delegate. It considers more of the the basic flow layout settings than the other answers and is thereby more generic.

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout*)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section
{
    NSInteger cellCount = [collectionView.dataSource collectionView:collectionView numberOfItemsInSection:section];
    if( cellCount >0 )
    {
        CGFloat cellWidth = ((UICollectionViewFlowLayout*)collectionViewLayout).itemSize.width+((UICollectionViewFlowLayout*)collectionViewLayout).minimumInteritemSpacing;
        CGFloat totalCellWidth = cellWidth*cellCount + spacing*(cellCount-1);
        CGFloat contentWidth = collectionView.frame.size.width-collectionView.contentInset.left-collectionView.contentInset.right;
        if( totalCellWidth<contentWidth )
        {
            CGFloat padding = (contentWidth - totalCellWidth) / 2.0;
            return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, padding, 0, padding);
        }
    }
    return UIEdgeInsetsZero;
}

swift version (thanks g0ld2k):

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

    // Translated from Objective-C version at: http://stackoverflow.com/a/27656363/309736

        let cellCount = CGFloat(viewModel.getNumOfItemsInSection(0))

        if cellCount > 0 {
            let flowLayout = collectionViewLayout as! UICollectionViewFlowLayout
            let cellWidth = flowLayout.itemSize.width + flowLayout.minimumInteritemSpacing
            let totalCellWidth = cellWidth*cellCount + spacing*(cellCount-1)
            let contentWidth = collectionView.frame.size.width - collectionView.contentInset.left - collectionView.contentInset.right

            if (totalCellWidth < contentWidth) {
                let padding = (contentWidth - totalCellWidth) / 2.0
                return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, padding, 0, padding)
            }
        }

        return UIEdgeInsetsZero
    }
}

You can use https://github.com/keighl/KTCenterFlowLayout like this:

KTCenterFlowLayout *layout = [[KTCenterFlowLayout alloc] init];

[self.collectionView setCollectionViewLayout:layout];

This is how i obtained a collection view that was center aligned with a fixed Interitem spacing

#define maxInteritemSpacing 6
#define minLineSpacing 3

@interface MyFlowLayout()<UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout>

@end

@implementation MyFlowLayout

- (instancetype)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.minimumInteritemSpacing = 3;
        self.minimumLineSpacing = minLineSpacing;
        self.scrollDirection = UICollectionViewScrollDirectionVertical;
    }
    return self;
}

- (NSArray *) layoutAttributesForElementsInRect:(CGRect)rect {
    NSArray *answer = [super layoutAttributesForElementsInRect:rect];

    if (answer.count > 0) {
        NSMutableArray<NSMutableArray<UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *> *> *rows = [NSMutableArray array];
        CGFloat maxY = -1.0f;
        NSInteger currentRow = 0;

        //add first item to row and set its maxY
        [rows addObject:[@[answer[0]] mutableCopy]];
        maxY = CGRectGetMaxY(((UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *)answer[0]).frame);

        for(int i = 1; i < [answer count]; ++i) {
            //handle maximum spacing
            UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *currentLayoutAttributes = answer[i];
            UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *prevLayoutAttributes = answer[i - 1];
            NSInteger maximumSpacing = maxInteritemSpacing;
            NSInteger origin = CGRectGetMaxX(prevLayoutAttributes.frame);

            if(origin + maximumSpacing + currentLayoutAttributes.frame.size.width < self.collectionViewContentSize.width) {
                CGRect frame = currentLayoutAttributes.frame;
                frame.origin.x = origin + maximumSpacing;
                currentLayoutAttributes.frame = frame;
            }

            //handle center align
            CGFloat currentY = currentLayoutAttributes.frame.origin.y;
            if (currentY >= maxY) {
                [self shiftRowToCenterForCurrentRow:rows[currentRow]];

                //next row
                [rows addObject:[@[currentLayoutAttributes] mutableCopy]];
                currentRow++;
            }
            else {
                //same row
                [rows[currentRow] addObject:currentLayoutAttributes];
            }

            maxY = MAX(CGRectGetMaxY(currentLayoutAttributes.frame), maxY);
        }

        //mark sure to shift 1 row items
        if (currentRow == 0) {
            [self shiftRowToCenterForCurrentRow:rows[currentRow]];
        }
    }

    return answer;
}

- (void)shiftRowToCenterForCurrentRow:(NSMutableArray<UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *> *)currentRow
{
    //shift row to center
    CGFloat endingX = CGRectGetMaxX(currentRow.lastObject.frame);
    CGFloat shiftX = (self.collectionViewContentSize.width - endingX) / 2.f;
    for (UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *attr in currentRow) {
        CGRect shiftedFrame = attr.frame;
        shiftedFrame.origin.x += shiftX;
        attr.frame = shiftedFrame;
    }
}

@end