Match Width of Parent in Column (Jetpack Compose)

Question

By default, Column {} has the width of it's largest child element. How can I make all other elements to fit the width of the parent Column? If I use Modifier.fillMaxWidth() the elements will take up the entire available space and make the parent Column larger. How can I achieve the same behavior like a Modifier.matchParentWidth() Modifier would provide?

Answer 1

You can use the Modifier .width(IntrinsicSize.Max)

 Column(Modifier.width(IntrinsicSize.Max)) {
        Box(Modifier.fillMaxWidth().background(Color.Gray)) {
            Text("Short text")
        }
        Box(Modifier.fillMaxWidth().background(Color.Yellow)) {
            Text("Extremely long text giving the width of its siblings")
        }
        Box(Modifier.fillMaxWidth().background(Color.Green)) {
            Text("Medium length text")
        }
    }

Answer 2

The solution is to leverage the power of intrinsic measurements.

Instead of using Modifier.fillMaxWidth() we use width(IntrinsicSize.Min) to match the width to the minimum width of the largest element

Answer 3

Here I'm using Modifier.fillMaxWidth and the items doesn't make parent column larger :

@Composable
fun Demo() {
Column(modifier = Modifier.width(300
    .dp)) {
    Text(text = "with fillMaxWidth modifier",modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth().background(Color.Red))
    Text(text = "without fillMaxWidth modifier",modifier = Modifier.background(Color.Gray))
 }

}

What I usually do to achieve the matchParentWidth is something like this (It's dirty but gets the job done):

val context = AmbientContext.current.resources
val displayMetrics = context.displayMetrics
val scrWidth = displayMetrics.widthPixels / displayMetrics.density

Column(modifier = Modifier.width(300
    .dp)) {
    Text(text = "with fillMaxWidth modifier",modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth().background(Color.Red))
    Text(text = "without fillMaxWidth modifier",modifier = Modifier
        .preferredWidth(scrWidth.dp)
        .background(Color.Gray))
}