Flutter: How do I place a widget next to a centered widget without making it shift?

JuanCruzStakys
August 5, 2023
201 views
1 vote
2 Answers

I have this text:
Centered text with no icon next to it

I’d like to place an info icon just on the right, keeping the text centered. When I put both inside a centered and center-aligned row, the text shifts to the left like this:

no centered text with an icon next to it

I want the position of the icon to be relative to the text, so if the text changes, the icon is always close to the right:

Others are not centered text with icon next to it

But in both of this cases, the text is shifted and I need it centered.

Code:

Container(
        decoration: BoxDecoration(
          gradient: LinearGradient(
            colors: (_boolExample ? [const Color(0xffdf1b0c), const Color(0xff6b0a2b)] : [const Color(0xff89ff8e), const Color(0xff45a7f5)]),
            stops: const [0, 1],
            begin: Alignment.topLeft,
            end: Alignment.bottomRight,
          ),
        ),
        child: Center(
          child: Row(
            mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
            children: <Widget>[
              Text(
                (_boolExample ? "TEXT EXAMPLE" : "ANOTHER TEXT EXAMPLE"),
                style: const TextStyle(
                  fontSize: 36,
                  fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
                  fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
                  color: Color.fromARGB(255, 255, 255, 255),
                ),
              ),
              const Padding(
                padding: EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                child: InfoPopupWidget(
                  contentTitle: 'Info Popup Details',
                  child: Icon(Icons.info),
                ),
              )
            ],
          ),
        ),
      ),

If I place a SizedBox of width 40 on the left, the text keeps centered but it seems pretty inelegant and inflexible: what if I wanted to add more items to the right?

I also tried adding a Container wrapped with Expanded on the left, and wrapping each other item in the row with expanded too:

<Widget>[
              Expanded(child: Container()),
              Expanded(
                child: Text(
                  (_boolExample ? "TEXT EXAMPLE" : "ANOTHER TEXT EXAMPLE"),
                  style: const TextStyle(
                    fontSize: 36,
                    fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
                    fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
                    color: Color.fromARGB(255, 255, 255, 255),
                  ),
                ),
              ),
              const Expanded(
                child: Padding(
                  padding: EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                  child: InfoPopupWidget(
                    contentTitle: 'Info Popup Details',
                    child: Icon(Icons.info),
                  ),
                ),
              )
            ],

But it just moves everything to the left. The same with Spacer.

I tried using Align inside ot the Widget children but it just aligns them within the "cell" of the row they’re inside.

Center(
          child: Row(
            mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
            children: <Widget>[
              Align(
                alignment: Alignment.center,
                child: Text(
                  (_boolExample ? "TEXT EXAMPLE" : "ANOTHER TEXT EXAMPLE"),
                  style: const TextStyle(
                    fontSize: 36,
                    fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
                    fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
                    color: Color.fromARGB(255, 255, 255, 255),
                  ),
                ),
              ),
              const Padding(
                padding: EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                child: InfoPopupWidget(
                  contentTitle: 'Info Popup Details',
                  child: Icon(Icons.info),
                ),
              )
            ],
          ),
        ),

Resulting in this:

Using Align

I looked for a way to make the first item centered and the row to grow to the right, but I couldn’t find it. I think that maybe a row is not the right tool for this. What widget could help me achieve this and how?

Tags: flutter user-interface

Answers

In your case maybe you can consider using Stack

Here is the code:

import 'package:flutter/src/widgets/framework.dart';
import 'package:flutter/src/widgets/placeholder.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class AlignTest extends StatelessWidget {
  AlignTest({super.key});

  bool _boolExample = true;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Container(
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        gradient: LinearGradient(
          colors: (_boolExample
              ? [const Color(0xffdf1b0c), const Color(0xff6b0a2b)]
              : [const Color(0xff89ff8e), const Color(0xff45a7f5)]),
          stops: const [0, 1],
          begin: Alignment.topLeft,
          end: Alignment.bottomRight,
        ),
      ),
      child: Center(
        child: Stack(
          // Allow widgets to show even if it already overflow
          // If this has not set to Clip.none, then the circle avatar in this case
          // would not able to show because it's already overflow
          clipBehavior: Clip.none,
          // set the default alignment to center, so the `Text` child could align
          // to center automatically
          alignment: Alignment.center,
          children: [
            // align to center based on the default alignment setting of this stack
            Text(
              (_boolExample ? "TEXT EXAMPLE" : "ANOTHER TEXT EXAMPLE"),
              style: const TextStyle(
                fontSize: 36,
                fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
                fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
                color: Color.fromARGB(255, 255, 255, 255),
              ),
            ),
            // use `Positioned` to set the postion of this child relatively
            const Positioned(
                // this means, the right edge of this child will has a dictance of
                // -30 with the right of the stack widget (this actually makes the child
                // overflowed by 30 unit)
                //
                // In your cases, you still need to know the size of this child in advance
                // in order to set a corrent relative distance
                right: -30,
                child: SizedBox.square(
                  dimension: 30,
                  child: Center(
                    child: CircleAvatar(
                      backgroundColor: Colors.red,
                    ),
                  ),
                )),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

As its name suggests, Stack in Flutter allows you to stack widgets together and set their align behaviour and position seperately.

In the example code above, we set the default align behaviour to center, and we set the position of the CircleAvatar using Positioned. Please check the code comment for more info and explanation

I’m also learning flutter now and my solution may not be the best one, but hope this could helps you

As pskink mentioned, you can use CompositedTransformTarget with CompositedTransformFollower for the icon.

final _layerLink = LayerLink();
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Center(
      child: Row(
        mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
        children: <Widget>[
          CompositedTransformTarget(
            link: _layerLink,
            child: ColoredBox(
              color: Colors.cyanAccent,
              child: Text(
                "ANOTHER TEXT EXAMPLE",
                style: const TextStyle(
                  fontSize: 36,
                  fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
                  fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
                  // color: Color.fromARGB(255, 255, 255, 255),
                ),
              ),
            ),
          ),
          CompositedTransformFollower(
            followerAnchor: Alignment.centerRight,
            targetAnchor: Alignment.centerRight,
            offset: Offset(8, 0),
            link: _layerLink,
            child: InfoPopupWidget(contentTitle: 'Info Popup Details', child: Text('x')),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }

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