Centering subview's X in autolayout throws "not prepared for the constraint"

Patrick Perini picture Patrick Perini · Aug 12, 2013 · Viewed 53.7k times · Source

I have a custom UIView subclass which is being initialized via a nib.

In -awakeFromNib, I'm creating a subview and attempting to center it in its superview.

[self setInteralView: [[UIView alloc] init]];
[[self internalView] addConstraint: [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem: [self internalView]
                                                                 attribute: NSLayoutAttributeCenterX
                                                                 relatedBy: NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                                    toItem: self
                                                                 attribute: NSLayoutAttributeCenterX
                                                                multiplier: 1
                                                                  constant: 0]];

This breaks, and causes the following output:

2013-08-11 17:58:29.628 MyApp[32414:a0b] The view hierarchy is not prepared for the constraint: <NSLayoutConstraint:0xc1dcc80 UIView:0xc132a40.centerX == MyView:0xc1315a0.centerX>
    When added to a view, the constraint's items must be descendants of that view (or the view itself). This will crash if the constraint needs to be resolved before the view hierarchy is assembled. Break on -[UIView _viewHierarchyUnpreparedForConstraint:] to debug.
2013-08-11 17:58:29.630 MyApp[32414:a0b] View hierarchy unprepared for constraint.
    Constraint: <NSLayoutConstraint:0xc1dcc80 UIView:0xc132a40.centerX == MyView:0xc1315a0.centerX>
    Container hierarchy: 
<UIView: 0xc132a40; frame = (0 0; 0 0); clipsToBounds = YES; layer = <CALayer: 0xc132bc0>>
    View not found in container hierarchy: <MyView: 0xc1315a0; frame = (-128 -118; 576 804); layer = <CALayer: 0xc131710>>
    That view's superview: <UIView: 0xc131a70; frame = (0 0; 320 568); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0xc131b50>>

Answer

Jannie Theunissen picture Jannie Theunissen · Jul 29, 2014

For others who come here: I got this error, because I added the constraints before I added the subviews to the hierarchy.