How to center align the cells of a UICollectionVie

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 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

Answer 1

I think you can achieve the single line look by implementing something like this:

- (UIEdgeInsets)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout*)collectionViewLayout insetForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section {
    return UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 100, 0, 0);
}

You will have to play around with that number to figure out how to force the content into a single line. The first 0, is the top edge argument, you could adjust that one too, if you want to center the content vertically in the screen.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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:

Answer 4

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);
}

Answer 5

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

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

[self.collectionView setCollectionViewLayout:layout];

Answer 6

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.