Create Blank Space Between Nav Bar Items?

Question

I've spent several hours on trying to figure this out to no end. My last option is to just create blank labels to create space, but I feel like their is a more cleaner way.

Basically I have three buttons and we're trying to create fixed space between them for neatness. Each button is programmatically added.

I found this code:

UIBarButtonItem *fixedItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFixedSpace target:nil action:nil];
fixedItem.width = 20.0f; // or whatever you want

(Source)

But how do you assign this piece of code to a certain button?

Answer 1

Its possible you're confused. You don't assign this code to a button. That code creates a button of type UIBarButtonSystemItemFixedSpace. So, do what the answer you linked to says. Create the fixed & flexible UIBarButtonItems (along with the other buttons you have), then set them on your navigation bar. In this case they would appear in the top left area of your navigation bar (via leftBarButtonItems):

// Create "Normal" buttons items:
UIBarButtonItem *button1 = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"1" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:Nil action:nil];
UIBarButtonItem *button2 = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"2" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:Nil action:nil];    
UIBarButtonItem *button3 = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"3" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:Nil action:nil];

// Create "Spacer" bar button items 
UIBarButtonItem *fixedItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFixedSpace target:nil action:nil];
fixedItem.width = 20.0f; // or whatever you want
UIBarButtonItem *flexibleItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil];

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItems = @[button1, fixedItem, button2, flexibleItem, button3];

Additionally, if you had a toolbar you could use the toolbar's items property:

self.toolbar.items = @[button1, fixedItem, button2, flexibleItem, button3];