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

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)
}

Answer 2

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)
}

Answer 3

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);
    }

Answer 4

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);
}

Answer 5

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
    }
}

Answer 6

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
    }
}