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 project to try to find help  Does anyone know how to make the spaces between views increase or decrease evenly whenever the view is resized   Here are three labels  manually spaced vertically even      What I want is for them to resize their spacing  not the view size  evenly when I rotate  By default  the top and bottom views squish towards the center

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I set a width value just for the first item (>= a width) and a minimum distance between each item (>= a distance). Then I use Ctrl to drag second, third... item on the first one to chain dependencies among the items.

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I just solved my problem using the multiplier feature   I m not sure it works for all cases  but for me it worked perfectly   I m on Xcode 6 3 FYI   What I ended up doing was   1  First getting my buttons positioned on a 320px width screen distributed the way I wanted it to look on a 320px device     2  Then I added a leading Space constraint to superview on all of my buttons     3  Then I modified the properties of the leading space so that the constant was 0 and the multiplier is the x offset divided by width of the screen  e g  my first button was 8px from left edge so I set my multiplier to 8 320   4  Then the important step here is to change the second Item in the constraint relation to be the superview Trailing instead of superview leading   This is key because superview Leading is 0 and trailing in my case is 320  so 8 320 is 8 px on a 320px device  then when the superview s width changes to 640 or whatever  the views all move at a ratio relative to width of the 320px screen size   The math here is much simpler to understand

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The correct and easiest way is to use Stack Views    Add your labels views to the Stack View       Select the Stack View and set Distribution to be Equal Spacing       Add Spacing to nearest neighbor constraints to the Stack View and update frames        Add Height constraints to all the labels  optional   Needed only for views that does not have Intrinsic Size   Labels for example does not need here height constrains and only need to set numberOfLines   3 or 0 for example       Enjoy Preview

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Building on Ben Dolman s answer  this distributes the views more evenly  with padding  etc      NSArray   constraintsForEvenDistributionOfItems  NSArray   views                            relativeToCenterOfItem  id toView vertically  BOOL vertically       NSMutableArray  constraints    NSMutableArray new       NSLayoutAttribute attr   vertically   NSLayoutAttributeCenterY   NSLayoutAttributeCenterX       CGFloat min   0 25      CGFloat max   1 75      CGFloat d    max-min      views count  - 1       for  NSUInteger i   0  i  lt   views count   i              id view   views i           CGFloat multiplier   i   d   min          NSLayoutConstraint  constraint    NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem view                                                                       attribute attr                                                                       relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                                          toItem toView                                                                       attribute attr                                                                      multiplier multiplier                                                                        constant 0            constraints addObject constraint              return constraints

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swift 3 version   let  redView   UIView            redView backgroundColor   UIColor red          redView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false          let  yellowView   UIView            yellowView backgroundColor   UIColor yellow          yellowView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false          let  blueView   UIView            blueView backgroundColor   UIColor blue          blueView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false          self view addSubview  redView          self view addSubview  yellowView          self view addSubview  blueView           var views      redView    redView    yellowView    yellowView    blueView   blueView           var nslayoutConstraint H   NSLayoutConstraint constraints withVisualFormat    - gt  0-  redView 40  - gt  0-  yellowView 40  - gt  0-  blueView 40  - gt  0-    options    alignAllTop   alignAllBottom   metrics  nil  views  views          self view addConstraints nslayoutConstraint H           var nslayoutConstraint V   NSLayoutConstraint constraints withVisualFormat   V   redView 60     options  NSLayoutFormatOptions init rawValue  0   metrics  nil  views  views          self view addConstraints nslayoutConstraint V            let constraint red   NSLayoutConstraint init item  self view  attribute   centerY  relatedBy   equal  toItem   redView  attribute   centerY  multiplier  1  constant  0          self view addConstraint constraint red           let constraint yellow   NSLayoutConstraint init item  self view  attribute   centerX  relatedBy   equal  toItem   yellowView  attribute   centerX  multiplier  1  constant  0          self view addConstraint constraint yellow           let constraint yellow1   NSLayoutConstraint init item   redView  attribute   centerX  relatedBy   equal  toItem   yellowView  attribute   leading  multiplier  0 5  constant  0          self view addConstraint constraint yellow1           let constraint yellow2   NSLayoutConstraint init item   blueView  attribute   centerX  relatedBy   equal  toItem   yellowView  attribute   leading  multiplier  1 5  constant  40          self view addConstraint constraint yellow2

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check https   developer apple com library ios documentation UserExperience Conceptual AutolayoutPG AutoLayoutbyExample AutoLayoutbyExample html having nice description about solving your problem

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I have made a function that might help  This usage example      self view addConstraints   NSLayoutConstraint fluidConstraintWithItems NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings button1  button2  button3                                                                  asString     button1     button2     button3                                                                  alignAxis   V                                                            verticalMargin 100                                                         horizontalMargin 50                                                              innerMargin 25      will cause that vertical distribution  sorry don t have the 10 reputation to embed images   And if you change the axis and some margin values    alignAxis   H  verticalMargin 120 horizontalMargin 20 innerMargin 10   You ll get that horizontal distribution    I m newbie in iOS but voil      EvenDistribution h   interface NSLayoutConstraint  EvenDistribution          Returns constraints that will cause a set of subviews    to be evenly distributed along an axis         NSArray     fluidConstraintWithItems  NSDictionary    views                                asString  NSArray    stringViews                               alignAxis  NSString    axis                          verticalMargin  NSUInteger  vMargin                        horizontalMargin  NSUInteger  hMargin                             innerMargin  NSUInteger  inner   end   EvenDistribution m   import  EvenDistribution h    implementation NSLayoutConstraint  EvenDistribution      NSArray    fluidConstraintWithItems  NSDictionary    dictViews                               asString  NSArray    stringViews                              alignAxis  NSString    axis                         verticalMargin  NSUInteger  vMargin                       horizontalMargin  NSUInteger  hMargin                            innerMargin  NSUInteger  iMargin        NSMutableArray  constraints    NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity  dictViews count       NSMutableString  globalFormat    NSMutableString stringWithFormat       - d-                                        axis                                        axis isEqualToString   V     vMargin   hMargin                                                    for  NSUInteger i   0  i  lt  dictViews count  i                   if  i    0                   globalFormat appendString  NSString stringWithFormat        - d-   stringViews i   iMargin                else if i    dictViews count - 1                   globalFormat appendString  NSString stringWithFormat              -   stringViews i   stringViews i-1                 else                 globalFormat appendString  NSString stringWithFormat              - d-   stringViews i   stringViews i-1   iMargin                 NSString  localFormat    NSString stringWithFormat        - d-    - d-                                          axis isEqualToString   V       H      V                                         axis isEqualToString   V     hMargin   vMargin                                       stringViews i                                         axis isEqualToString   V     hMargin   vMargin                 constraints addObjectsFromArray  NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat localFormat                                                                                      options 0                                                                                      metrics nil                                                                                        views dictViews                 globalFormat appendString  NSString stringWithFormat    d-                                     axis isEqualToString   V     vMargin   hMargin                                           constraints addObjectsFromArray  NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat globalFormat                                                                              options 0                                                                              metrics nil                                                                                views dictViews         return constraints       end

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Very quick Interface Builder solution   For any number of views to be evenly spaced within a superview  simply give each an  Align Center X to superview  constraint for horizontal layout  or  Align Center Y superview  for vertical layout  and set the Multiplier to be N p  NOTE  some have had better luck with p N - see below    where   N   total number of views  and   p   position of the view including spaces   First position is 1  then a space  making the next position 3  so p becomes a series  1 3 5 7 9       Works for any number of views   So  if you have 3 views to space out  it looks like this     EDIT Note  The choice of N p or p N depends on the relation order of your alignment constraint  If  First Item  is Superview Center  you may use p N  while if Superview Center is  Second Item   you may use N p  If in doubt  just try both out     -

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Many answers are not correct  but get many counts  Here I just write a solution programmatically  the three views are horizontal align  without using spacer views  but it only work when the widths of labels are known when used in storyboard   NSDictionary  views   NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings  redView   yellowView   blueView     self view addConstraints  NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat    - gt  0-  redView 40  - gt  0-  yellowView 40  - gt  0-  blueView 40  - gt  0-   options NSLayoutFormatAlignAllTop   NSLayoutFormatAlignAllBottom metrics nil views views      self view addConstraints  NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat   V   redView 60    options 0 metrics nil views views     self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem self view attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem  redView attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier 1 constant 0      self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem self view attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem  yellowView attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier 1 constant 0     self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem  redView attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem  yellowView attribute NSLayoutAttributeLeading multiplier 0 5 constant 0     self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem  blueView attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem  yellowView attribute NSLayoutAttributeLeading multiplier 1 5 constant 40

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I wanted to horizontally align 5 images  so I ended up following Mete s response with a small difference   The first image will be centered horizontally in container equal to 0 and a multiplier of 1 5     The second image will be centered horizontally in container equal to 0 and a multiplier of 3 5    And like that for the rest of the images  For example  the fifth  and last  image will be centered horizontally in container equal to 0 and a multiplier of 9 5    As Mete explained  the order goes 1  3  5  7  9  etc  The positions follow the same logic  the first position is 1  then space  then the next position 3  and so on

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As of iOS 9  Apple has made this very easy with the  long-awaited  UIStackView  Just select the views you want to contain in the Interface Builder and choose Editor -  Embed In -  Stack view  Set the appropriate width height margin constraints for the stack view  and make sure to set the Distribution property to  Equal spacing      Of course  if you need to support iOS 8 or lower  you ll have to choose one of the other options

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Android has a method of chaining views together in its constraint based layout system that I wanted to mimic   Searches brought me here but none of the answers quite worked  I didn t want to use StackViews because they tend to cause me more grief down the line than they save up front   I ended up creating a solution that used UILayoutGuides placed between the views   Controlling their width s allows different types of distributions  chain styles in Android parlance   The function accepts a leading and trailing anchor instead of a parent view   This allows the chain to be placed between two arbitrary views rather than distributed inside of the parent view   It does use UILayoutGuide which is only available in iOS 9  but that shouldn t be a problem anymore    public enum LayoutConstraintChainStyle       case spread   Evenly distribute between the anchors     case spreadInside   Pin the first  amp  last views to the sides and then evenly distribute     case packed   The views have a set space but are centered between the anchors     public extension NSLayoutConstraint        static func chainHorizontally views   UIView                                     leadingAnchor  NSLayoutXAxisAnchor                                    trailingAnchor  NSLayoutXAxisAnchor                                    spacing  CGFloat   0 0                                    style  LayoutConstraintChainStyle    spread  - gt   NSLayoutConstraint        var constraints    NSLayoutConstraint        guard views count  gt  1 else   return constraints       guard let first   views first  let last   views last  let superview   first superview else   return constraints          Setup the chain of views     var distributionGuides    UILayoutGuide        var previous   first     let firstGuide   UILayoutGuide       superview addLayoutGuide firstGuide      distributionGuides append firstGuide      firstGuide identifier    ChainDistribution  distributionGuides count       constraints append firstGuide leadingAnchor constraint equalTo  leadingAnchor       constraints append first leadingAnchor constraint equalTo  firstGuide trailingAnchor  constant  spacing       views dropFirst   forEach   view in         let g   UILayoutGuide           superview addLayoutGuide g          distributionGuides append g          g identifier    ChainDistribution  distributionGuides count           constraints append contentsOf                g leadingAnchor constraint equalTo  previous trailingAnchor               view leadingAnchor constraint equalTo  g trailingAnchor                     previous   view           let lastGuide   UILayoutGuide       superview addLayoutGuide lastGuide      constraints append contentsOf   lastGuide leadingAnchor constraint equalTo  last trailingAnchor                                       lastGuide trailingAnchor constraint equalTo  trailingAnchor        distributionGuides append lastGuide         Space the according to the style      switch style       case  packed          if let first   distributionGuides first  let last   distributionGuides last               constraints append first widthAnchor constraint greaterThanOrEqualToConstant  spacing               constraints append last widthAnchor constraint greaterThanOrEqualToConstant  spacing               constraints append last widthAnchor constraint equalTo  first widthAnchor               constraints append contentsOf                  distributionGuides dropFirst   dropLast                        map    0 widthAnchor constraint equalToConstant  spacing                                    case  spread          if let first   distributionGuides first               constraints append contentsOf                  distributionGuides dropFirst   map    0 widthAnchor constraint equalTo  first widthAnchor                   case  spreadInside          if let first   distributionGuides first  let last   distributionGuides last               constraints append first widthAnchor constraint equalToConstant  spacing               constraints append last widthAnchor constraint equalToConstant  spacing               let innerGuides   distributionGuides dropFirst   dropLast               if let key   innerGuides first                   constraints append contentsOf                      innerGuides dropFirst   map    0 widthAnchor constraint equalTo  key widthAnchor                                                         return constraints

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So my approach allows you to do this in interface builder  What you do is create  spacer views  that you have set to match heights equally  Then add top and bottom constraints to the labels  see the screenshot        More specifically  I have a top constraint on  Spacer View 1  to superview with a height constraint of lower priority than 1000 and with Height Equals to all of the other  spacer views    Spacer View 4  has a bottom space constraint to superview  Each label has a respective top and bottom constraints to its nearest  spacer views    Note  Be sure you DON T have extra top bottom space constraints on your labels to superview  just the ones to the  space views   This will be satisfiable since the top and bottom constraints are on  Space View 1  and  Spacer View 4  respectively   Duh 1  I duplicated my view and merely put it in landscape mode so you could see that it worked   Duh 2  The  spacer views  could have been transparent   Duh 3  This approach could be applied horizontally

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I ve been on a rollercoaster ride of loving autolayout and hating it  The key to loving it seems to be to accept the following    Interface builder s editing and  helpful  auto-creation of constraints is near useless for all but the most trivial case Creating categories to simplify common operations is a life-saver since the code is so repetitive and verbose    That said  what you are attempting is not straightforward and would be difficult to achieve in  interface builder  It is pretty simple to do in code  This code  in viewDidLoad  creates and positions three labels how you are asking for them      Create three labels  turning off the default constraints applied to views created in code UILabel  label1    UILabel new   label1 translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO  label1 text     Label 1    UILabel  label2    UILabel new   label2 translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO  label2 text     Label 2    UILabel  label3    UILabel new   label3 translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO  label3 text     Label 3       Add them all to the view  self view addSubview label1    self view addSubview label2    self view addSubview label3       Center them all horizontally  self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem label1 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self view attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier 1 0 constant 0      self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem label2 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self view attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier 1 0 constant 0      self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem label3 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self view attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier 1 0 constant 0        Center the middle one vertically  self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem label2 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem self view attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier 1 0 constant 0        Position the top one half way up  self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem label1 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem label2 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier 0 5 constant 0        Position the bottom one half way down  self view addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem label3 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem label2 attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier 1 5 constant 0      As I say  this code is much simplified with a couple of category methods in UIView  but for clarity I ve done it the long way here    The category is here for those interested  and it has a method for evenly spacing an array of views along a particular axis

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I was able to solve this entirely in IB    Make constraints to align the center Y of each of your subviews to the bottom edge of the superview  Set the multiplier of each of these constraints to 1 2n  3 2n  5 2n       n-1 2n where n is the number of subviews you are distributing    So if you have three labels  set the multipliers to each of those constraints to 0 1666667  0 5  0 833333

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Here is yet another answer  I was answering a similar question and saw link referenced to this question  I didnt see any answer similar to mine  So  I thought of writing it here     class ViewController  UIViewController        override func viewDidLoad             super viewDidLoad           view backgroundColor   UIColor whiteColor           setupViews              var constraints   NSLayoutConstraint            func setupViews              let container1   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 1           let container2   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 2           let container3   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 3           let container4   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 4            view addSubview container1          view addSubview container2          view addSubview container3          view addSubview container4                             left right alignment             container1 leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view leftAnchor  constant  20               container1 rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view rightAnchor  constant  -20               container2 leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 leftAnchor               container2 rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 rightAnchor               container3 leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 leftAnchor               container3 rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 rightAnchor               container4 leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 leftAnchor               container4 rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 rightAnchor                    place containers one after another vertically             container1 topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view topAnchor               container2 topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 bottomAnchor               container3 topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container2 bottomAnchor               container4 topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container3 bottomAnchor               container4 bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view bottomAnchor                    container height constraints             container2 heightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 heightAnchor               container3 heightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 heightAnchor               container4 heightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor container1 heightAnchor                             forEach    0 active   true               func createButtonContainer withButtonTitle title  String  - gt  UIView           let view   UIView frame   zero          view translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false          let button   UIButton type   System          button translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false         button setTitle title  forState   Normal          view addSubview button            button centerYAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view centerYAnchor               button leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view leftAnchor               button rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view rightAnchor   forEach    0 active   true            return view             And again  this can be done quite easily with iOS9 UIStackViews as well    class ViewController  UIViewController        override func viewDidLoad             super viewDidLoad           view backgroundColor   UIColor greenColor           setupViews              var constraints   NSLayoutConstraint            func setupViews              let container1   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 1           let container2   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 2           let container3   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 3           let container4   createButtonContainer withButtonTitle   Button 4            let stackView   UIStackView arrangedSubviews   container1  container2  container3  container4           stackView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false         stackView axis    Vertical         stackView distribution    FillEqually         view addSubview stackView            stackView topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view topAnchor               stackView bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view bottomAnchor               stackView leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view leftAnchor  constant  20               stackView rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor view rightAnchor  constant  -20   forEach    0 active   true               func createButtonContainer withButtonTitle title  String  - gt  UIView           let button   UIButton type   Custom          button translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false         button backgroundColor   UIColor redColor           button setTitleColor UIColor whiteColor    forState   Normal          button setTitle title  forState   Normal          let buttonContainer   UIStackView arrangedSubviews   button           buttonContainer distribution    EqualCentering         buttonContainer alignment    Center         buttonContainer translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false         return buttonContainer           Notice that it is exact same approach as above  It adds four container views which are filled equally and a view is added to each stack view which is aligned in center  But  this version of UIStackView reduces some code and looks nice

User · Answer

With labels this works fine at least     H  -15- first   second  - second   third  - third   first  -15-   If the first has the same width as the second  and second the third  and third the first  then they will all get the same width    You can do it both horizontally  H  and vertically  V

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Check out the open source library PureLayout  It offers a few API methods for distributing views  including variants where the spacing between each view is fixed  view size varies as needed   and where the size of each view is fixed  spacing between views varies as needed   Note that all of these are accomplished without the use of any  spacer views    From NSArray PureLayout h      NSArray PureLayout h              Distributes the views in this array equally along the selected axis in their superview  Views will be the same size  variable  in the dimension along the axis and will have spacing  fixed  between them     -  NSArray   autoDistributeViewsAlongAxis  ALAxis axis                                 alignedTo  ALAttribute alignment                          withFixedSpacing  CGFloat spacing       Distributes the views in this array equally along the selected axis in their superview  Views will be the same size  fixed  in the dimension along the axis and will have spacing  variable  between them     -  NSArray   autoDistributeViewsAlongAxis  ALAxis axis                                 alignedTo  ALAttribute alignment                             withFixedSize  CGFloat size            Since it s all open source  if you re interested to see how this is achieved without spacer views just take a look at the implementation   It depends on leveraging both the constant and multiplier for the constraints

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Very easy way to solve this in InterfaceBuilder   Set the centered label  label2  to  Horizontal Center in Container  and  Vertical Center in Container   Select the centered label and the top label  label1   label2  and add TWO constraints for Vertical Spacing  One with Greater Than or Equal the min spacing  One with Less Than or Equal the max spacing   The same for the centered label and the bottom label  label2   label3    Additionally you could also add two constraints to label1 - Top Space To SuperView and two constraints to label2 - Bottom Space To SuperView   The result will be that all 4 spacings will change their sizes equally

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I am having a similar problem and discovered this post  However  none of the currently provided answers solve the problem in the way you want  They don t make the spacing equally  but rather distribute the center of the labels equally  It is important to understand that this is not the same  I ve constructed a little diagram to illustrate this     There are 3 views  all 20pt tall  Using any of the suggested methods equally distributes the centers of the views and give you the illustrated layout  Notice that the y-center of the views are spaced equally  However  the spacing between superview and top view is 15pt  while the spacing between the subviews is just 5pt  To have the views spaced equally these should both be 10pt  i e  all blue arrows should be 10pt   Nevertheless  I haven t come up with a good generic solution  yet  Currently my best idea is to insert  spacing views  between the subviews and setting the heights of the spacing views to be equal

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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  lt   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

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I found a perfect and simple method  The auto layout does not allow you to resize the spaces equally  but it does allow you to resize views equally  Simply put some invisible views in between your fields and tell auto layout to keep them the same size  It works perfectly       One thing of note though  when I reduced the size in the interface designer  sometimes it got confused and left a label where it was  and it had a conflict if the size was changed by an odd amount  Otherwise it worked perfectly   edit  I found that the conflict became a problem  Because of that  I took one of the spacing constraints  deleted it and replaced it with two constraints  a greater-than-or-equal and a less-than-or-equal  Both were the same size and had a much lower priority than the other constraints  The result was no further conflict

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LOOK  NO SPACERS   Based on suggestions in the comments section of my original answer  especially  Rivera s helpful suggestions  I ve simplified my original answer    I m using gifs to illustrate just how simple this is  I hope you find the gifs helpful  Just in case you have a problem with gifs  I ve included the old answer below with plain screen shots    Instructions   1  Add your buttons or labels  I m using 3 buttons   2  Add a center x constraint from each button to the superview     3  Add a constraint from each button to the bottom layout constraint     4  Adjust the constraint added in  3 above as follows    a  select the constraint   b  remove the constant  set to 0    c  change the multiplier as follows  take the number of buttons   1  and starting at the top  set the multiplier as buttonCountPlus1 1  and then buttonCountPlus1 2  and finally buttonCountPlus1 3   I explain where I got this formula from in the old answer below  if you re interested      5  Here s a demo running     Note  If your buttons have larger heights then you will need to compensate for this in the constant value since the constraint is from the bottom of the button     Old Answer    Despite what Apple s docs and Erica Sadun s excellent book  Auto Layout Demystified  say  it is possible to evenly space views without spacers  This is very simple to do in IB and in code for any number of elements you wish to space evenly  All you need is a math formula called the  section formula   It s simpler to do than it is to explain  I ll do my best by demonstrating it in IB  but it s just as easy to do in code   In the example in question  you would   1  start by setting each label to have a center constraint  This is very simple to do  Just control drag from each label to the bottom    2  Hold down shift  since you might as well add the other constraint we re going to use  namely  the  bottom space to bottom layout guide    3  Select the  bottom space to bottom layout guide   and  center horizontally in container   Do this for all 3 labels     Basically  if we take the label whose coordinate we wish to determine and divide it by the total number of labels plus 1  then we have a number we can add to IB to get the dynamic location  I m simplifying the formula  but you could use it for setting horizontal spacing or both vertical and horizontal at the same time  It s super powerful   Here are our multipliers   Label1   1 4    25   Label2   2 4    5   Label3   3 4    75   Edit   Rivera commented that you can simply use the ratios directly in the multiplier field  and xCode with do the math    4  So  let s select Label1 and select the bottom constraint  Like this    5  Select the  Second Item  in the Attributes Inspector    6  From the drop down select  Reverse first and second item     7  Zero out the constant and the wC hAny value   You could add an offset here if you needed it     8  This is the critical part  In the multiplier field add our first multiplier 0 25    9  While you re at it set the top  First item  to  CenterY  since we want to center it to the label s y center  Here s how all that should look     10  Repeat this process for each label and plug in the relevant multiplier  0 5 for Label2  and 0 75 for Label3  Here s the final product in all orientations with all compact devices  Super simple  I ve been looking at a lot of solutions involving reams of code  and spacers  This is far and away the best solution I ve seen on the issue   Update   kraftydevil adds that Bottom layout guide only appear in storyboards  not in xibs  Use  Bottom Space to Container  in xibs  Good catch

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Another approach might be to have the top and bottom labels have constraints relative to the view top and bottom  respectively  and have the middle view have top and bottom constraints relative to the first and third view  respectively   Note that you have more control over constraints than it might seem by dragging views close to one another until guiding dashed lines appear - these indicate constraints between the two objects that will be formed instead of between the object and the superview   In this case you would then want to alter the constraints to be  Greater than or equal to  the desired value  instead of  equal to  to allow them to resize   Not sure if this will do exactly what you want

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Why dont you just create a tableView and make isScrollEnabled   false

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I know it s been a while since the first answer  but I just came across the very same problem and I want to share my solution  For generations to come     I set my views on viewDidLoad   -  void viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad        cancelButton    UIButton buttonWithType  UIButtonTypeRoundedRect       cancelButton translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO       cancelButton setTitle   Cancel  forState UIControlStateNormal        self view addSubview cancelButton        middleButton    UIButton buttonWithType  UIButtonTypeRoundedRect       middleButton translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO       middleButton setTitle   Middle  forState UIControlStateNormal        self view addSubview middleButton        nextButton    UIButton buttonWithType  UIButtonTypeRoundedRect       nextButton translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO       nextButton setTitle   Next  forState UIControlStateNormal        self view addSubview nextButton          self view setNeedsUpdateConstraints        And then  on updateViewConstrains  first I delete all constrains  then I create the views dictionary and then I calculate the space to be used between views  After that  I just use the Visual Language Format to set the constraints   -  void updateViewConstraints          super updateViewConstraints         self view removeConstraints self view constraints        NSDictionary  viewsDictionary   NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings cancelButton  nextButton  middleButton        float distance  self view bounds size width-cancelButton intrinsicContentSize width-nextButton intrinsicContentSize width-middleButton intrinsicContentSize width-20-20      viewsDictionary count -1       2 times 20 counts for the left  amp  rigth margins     NSNumber  distancies  NSNumber numberWithFloat distance          NSLog   Distancies       distancies                NSLog   View Width   f   self view bounds size width         NSLog   Cancel Width   f   cancelButton intrinsicContentSize width         NSLog   Middle Width   f   middleButton intrinsicContentSize width         NSLog   Next Width   f   nextButton intrinsicContentSize width          NSArray  constraints    NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat    - cancelButton -dis- middleButton -dis- nextButton -                                                                      options NSLayoutFormatAlignAllBaseline                                                                    metrics     dis  distancies                                                                       views viewsDictionary          self view addConstraints constraints          constraints    NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat   V  nextButton -                                                             options 0                                                           metrics nil                                                             views viewsDictionary        self view addConstraints constraints          The good thing about this method is that you have to do very little math  I m not saying this is the perfect solution  but I works for the layout I was trying to achieve   I hope it helps

User · Answer

Late to the party but I have a working solution for creating a menu horizontally with spacing  It can be easily done using    in NSLayoutConstraint  const float MENU HEIGHT   40   -  UIView   createMenuWithLabels   NSArray    labels        labels is NSArray of NSString     UIView   backgroundView     UIView alloc init       backgroundView translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false       NSMutableDictionary   views     NSMutableDictionary alloc  init       NSMutableString   format     NSMutableString alloc  initWithString    H          NSString   firstLabelKey       for NSString   str in labels                UILabel   label     UILabel alloc  init           label translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   false          label text   str          label textAlignment   NSTextAlignmentCenter          label textColor    UIColor whiteColor            backgroundView addSubview  label            label fixHeightToTopBounds  MENU HEIGHT-2            backgroundView addConstraints   label fixHeightToTopBounds  MENU HEIGHT            NSString   key    self camelCaseFromString  str            views setObject  label forKey  key           if firstLabelKey    nil                         format appendString   NSString stringWithFormat           key                firstLabelKey   key                    else                        format appendString   NSString stringWithFormat                 key  firstLabelKey                          format appendString              NSArray   constraints    NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat   NSString    format                                                                                options  0                                                                                metrics  nil                                                                                  views   NSDictionary    views        backgroundView addConstraints  constraints       return backgroundView

User · Answer

Here is a solution that will vertically center any number of subviews  even if they have unique sizes  What you want to do is make a mid-level container  center that in the superview  then put all the subviews in the container and arrange them with respect to one another  But crucially you also need to constrain them to the top and bottom of the container  so the container can be correctly sized and centered in the superview  By figuring the correct height from its subviews  the container can be vertically centered   In this example  self is the superview in which you are centering all the subviews   NSArray  subviews       your subviews in top-to-bottom order      UIView  container     UIView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectZero   container translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO  for  UIView  subview in subviews        subview translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints   NO       container addSubview subview      self addSubview container     self addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem container attribute NSLayoutAttributeLeft relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                     toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeLeft multiplier 1 0f constant 0 0f     self addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem container attribute NSLayoutAttributeRight relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                     toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeRight multiplier 1 0f constant 0 0f     self addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem container attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                     toItem self attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier 1 0f constant 0 0f     if  0  lt  subviews count        UIView  firstSubview   subviews 0        container addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem firstSubview attribute NSLayoutAttributeTop relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                              toItem container attribute NSLayoutAttributeTop multiplier 1 0f constant 0 0f        UIView  lastSubview   subviews lastObject       container addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem lastSubview attribute NSLayoutAttributeBottom relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                              toItem container attribute NSLayoutAttributeBottom multiplier 1 0f constant 0 0f         UIView  subviewAbove   nil      for  UIView  subview in subviews             container addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem subview attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                                  toItem container attribute NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier 1 0f constant 0 0f            if  subviewAbove                 container addConstraint  NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem subview attribute NSLayoutAttributeTop relatedBy NSLayoutRelationEqual                                                                      toItem subviewAbove attribute NSLayoutAttributeBottom multiplier 1 0f constant 10 0f                      subviewAbove   subview

User · Answer

Yes  you can do this solely in interface builder and without writing code - the one caveat is that you are resizing the label instead of distributing whitespace   In this case  align Label 2 s X and Y to the superview so it is fixed in the center   Then set label 1 s vertical space to the superview and to label 2 to the standard  repeat for label 3   After setting label 2 the easiest way to set label 1 and 3 is to resize them until they snap   Here is the horizontal display  note that the vertical space between label 1 and 2 is set to standard   And here is the portrait version   I realize they are not absolutely 100  equally spaced between the baselines due to the difference between the standard space between labels and the standard space to the superview   If that bothers you  set the size to 0 instead of standard

[ios] Evenly space multiple views within a container view

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