CodexBloom - Programming Q&A Platform

Issues with NSStackView and Constraints in macOS 13.6 Causing Unexpected Layout Behavior

πŸ‘€ Views: 572 πŸ’¬ Answers: 1 πŸ“… Created: 2025-06-23
macos nsstackview layout appkit swift

I tried several approaches but none seem to work... I'm testing a new approach and After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out. Quick question that's been bugging me - I'm experiencing a frustrating issue with `NSStackView` in macOS 13.6 where the views are not respecting the defined constraints, leading to unintended spacing and layout behavior... I've set up my stack view to arrange its subviews vertically, and I'm trying to achieve equal spacing between them. However, when I set the alignment to `.center` and the distribution to `.fillEqually`, the resulting layout is inconsistent, with some views overlapping or not occupying the expected space. Here's a simplified version of what my code looks like: ```swift let stackView = NSStackView() stackView.orientation = .vertical stackView.alignment = .center stackView.distribution = .fillEqually let label1 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "Label 1") let label2 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "Label 2") let label3 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "Label 3") stackView.addArrangedSubview(label1) stackView.addArrangedSubview(label2) stackView.addArrangedSubview(label3) // Set constraints (for example) stackView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ stackView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.leadingAnchor), stackView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.trailingAnchor), stackView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.topAnchor), stackView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.bottomAnchor) ]) ``` Despite setting the constraints on the stack view itself, the contents don't seem to adjust as expected, especially when resizing the window. I also tried adjusting the `spacing` property of the `NSStackView`, but it doesn’t seem to affect the layout. I am seeing no error messages in the console, which makes it even more perplexing. I've also attempted to set the `translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints` property of the individual arranged subviews to false, but that still hasn't resolved the issue. Has anyone else encountered similar behavior with `NSStackView` in macOS 13.6? Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated! I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. This is part of a larger service I'm building. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. For reference, this is a production web app. I'd be grateful for any help. What's the correct way to implement this?