This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Constraint Attributes
Constraints work with a limited geometric vocabulary. Attributes are the “nouns” of the constraint system, describing positions within a view’s alignment rectangle. Relations are “verbs,” specifying how the attributes compare to each other.
The attribute nouns (see Figure 1-7) speak to physical geometry. Constraints offer the following view attribute vocabulary:
- left, right, top, and bottom—The edges of a view’s alignment rectangle on the left (A), right (B), top (C), and bottom (D) of the view. These correspond to a view’s minimum X, maximum X, minimum Y, and maximum Y values.
- leading and trailing—The leading and trailing edges of the view’s alignment rectangle. In left-to-right (English-like) systems, these correspond to “left” (leading, A)) and “right” (trailing, B). In right-to-left linguistic environments like Arabic or Hebrew, these roles flip; right is leading (B), and left is trailing (A).
Figure 1-7. Attributes specify geometric elements of a view.
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- width and height—The width (E) and height (F) of the view’s alignment rectangle.
- centerX and centerY—The x-axis (H) and y-axis (G) centers of the views’ alignment rectangle.
- baseline—The alignment rectangle’s baseline (I), typically a set offset above its bottom attribute.
The relation verbs compare values. Constraint math is limited to three relations: setting equality or setting lower and upper bounds for comparison. You can use the following layout relations:
- Less-than-or-equal inequality—NSLayoutRelationLessThanOrEqual
- Equality—NSLayoutRelationEqual
- Greater-than-or-equal inequality—NSLayoutRelationGreaterThanOrEqual
This might not sound like a lot expressively. However, these three relations cover all the ground needed for specific equalities and for maximum and minimum limits.