How to set the height/width of a view (f.e. Label) to the size of its content?

Question

I want to set the height of a View in Xamarin.Formsexactly to the size of its content. For example I want a Label only to be as high as its text.

In Android I can do something like layout_height="wrap_content". Is there something similar in Xamarin.Forms? Can I use HeightRequest for this and if so, how?

Answer 1

This is a very broad question when you mention View, instead of something specific like Label, so there are some things to consider in different View scenarios:-

You can use HorizontalOptions and VerticalOptions properties of a View object to help with this, i.e. LayoutOptions.FillAndExpand or LayoutOptions.CenterAndExpand etc.

Yes - you can specify HeightRequest and WidthRequest on a View to indicate your preference to an area width and height to be reserved for the view through layout, although this is not guaranteed, dependent on other layout controls / views used.

If we are talking specifically to the Label control, this will not expand the text size, of a specific Label font size used, to fit the parent View that you specify though. To accomplish this you would have to set the Scale property as appropriate to scale the Label to the container it is used in.

Update 1:-

Using the following example code, the height is already altered automatically to fit the Label height text that is displayed?

        StackLayout  cobjStackLayout = new StackLayout()
        {
            Orientation = StackOrientation.Vertical
        };

        Label objLabel1 = new Label();
        objLabel1.BackgroundColor = Color.Red;
        objLabel1.Text = "This is a label";
        cobjStackLayout.Children.Add(objLabel1);

        Label objLabel2 = new Label();
        objLabel2.BackgroundColor = Color.Green;
        objLabel2.Text = "This is another label with different font size";
        objLabel2.Font = Font.OfSize("Arial", 48);
        cobjStackLayout.Children.Add(objLabel2);


        this.Content = cobjStackLayout;

Update 2:- Yes - there is an unexpected filling vertically to the end of the ContentPage, that is occurring when you are using just one Label.

If you try the following you should experience, around just the text, what you are after, using just 1 Label:-

        cobjStackLayout = new StackLayout()
        {
            Orientation = StackOrientation.Horizontal,
            VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.Start
        };

        Label objLabel1 = new Label();
        objLabel1.BackgroundColor = Color.Red;
        objLabel1.Text = "This is a label";
        cobjStackLayout.Children.Add(objLabel1);

        this.Content = cobjStackLayout;

Update 3:-

Here is a version that doesn't use the parent to set the HorizontalOptions/VerticalOptions so things might be a little clearer about when I say that LayoutOptions specified on different parts of a hierarchy affect the output:-

        cobjStackLayout = new StackLayout()
        {
            Orientation = StackOrientation.Horizontal,
        };

        Label objLabel1 = new Label();
        objLabel1.BackgroundColor = Color.Red;
        objLabel1.Text = "This is a label";
        objLabel1.HorizontalOptions = LayoutOptions.Start;
        objLabel1.VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.Start;
        cobjStackLayout.Children.Add(objLabel1);


        this.Content = cobjStackLayout;

Remember its not enough sometimes to just set the HorizontalOptions or VerticalOptions on a View that you are interested in controlling to get your desired effect.