UIView dynamic height inside UIStackView

Question

I currently have a Stack View setup with a bunch of different objects inside of it, and I'm trying to add a view to it.

The view will have a dynamic number of labels added inside of it programmatically at run-time.

When I put the view inside of the stack view, I get errors with the constraints, which get fixed by adding a height constraint.

However, I don't know the height of the view initially so I can't constrain this.

Is there any way to have a UIView inside of a StackView auto-resize based on it's content size? I thought this would be automatic, but when I don't put a height constraint, the view doesn't show up

Answer 1

You don't have to put a content view inside the stackview to add the elements to it , you need to hook the stackview with only ( leading , trailing , top) constraints to the superView

then add elements with

stack.addArrangedSubview(view)

the most important thing is that the elements you add must have an intrinstic content-size like label and button , and if not then add a height with

someView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant:<#setValue#>).isActive = true

with distribution set to Fill

Answer 2

Steps to add custom UIView with dynamic height inside UIStackView

1. Add UIStackView to superview in IB and add top, bottom, leading and trailing constraints.
2. In case IB is throwing any error for constraint, just set intrinsic size for UIStackView as PlaceHolder with some dummy size. This will fix UIStackView position in IB but this will automatically change at run time as per auto layout.

3. Create instance of CustomUIView as below

   Bundle.main.loadNibNamed(nibName, owner: self, options: nil).first as! CustomUIView

4. Add UIView to UIStackView as below.

   stackView.addArrangedSubview(customView)

5. This will add custom UIView to UIStackView and it will expand/collapse as per xib content and constraints. Just make sure your xib has proper constraints as per auto layout guidelines.