iOS: Can't change a width in a horizontal stackview

Question

I'm starting with iOS app and creating a table view. In my table I have a cell like this.

Now I need to center the horizontal stackview with stars vertically and horizontally. This stackview has fixed width and height.

It have to look like this.

For this I put it in another horizontal stackview. I tried to add the same constraints to it as you see for the label

The problem is that this external stackview does not stretch like a label. I also see that it's width and height are greyed out, I cannot change them. Why?

Doeskin

Can't you just center horizontally the StackView ? – Fenn

Please post a screenshot of the Attributes Inspector for that Stack View – Ousel

Don't put your "stars" stack view inside another stack view. Remove the Leading and Trailing constraints, and simply constrain it "centered horizontally" to the label above it. – Cartie

Answer 1

There are many ways to autolayout this.

I think you should gain a better understanding of StackViews for future usage. I recommend reading on these resources:

• https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uistackview
• https://www.raywenderlich.com/160646/uistackview-tutorial-introducing-stack-views-2

In order to achieve what you need:

1. Use only 1 horizontal StackView containing the stars. Constraint the stackview to the label by center horizontally.

2. Use 2 StackViews and keep your constraints. Outer stackview, change it to vertical axis and center alignment.

Method 2 Image in Attributes Inspector (cmd + option + 4):

Slowworm

"Method 2" is an option, but using a stack view to align one element is really the wrong way to go about it. – Cartie

There are merits to both layouts. Option 1 is dependent on the label's layout. If a constraint on the label breaks (though unlikely) it'll also mess up the layout of the stars. Stackviews are cheap as it's only a transformation layer. – Slowworm