That’s it! When you run the app, you should see Hello World.

App source code:

Lay out multiple widgets vertically and horizontally

One of the most common layout patterns is to arrange widgets vertically or horizontally. You can use a Row widget to arrange widgets horizontally, and a Column widget to arrange widgets vertically.

What’s the point?

• Row and Column are two of the most commonly used layout patterns.
• Row and Column each take a list of child widgets.
• A child widget can itself be a Row, Column, or other complex widget.
• You can specify how a Row or Column aligns its children, both vertically and horizontally.
• You can stretch or constrain specific child widgets.
• You can specify how child widgets use the Row’s or Column’s available space.

To create a row or column in Flutter, you add a list of children widgets to a Row or Column widget. In turn, each child can itself be a row or column, and so on. The following example shows how it is possible to nest rows or columns inside of rows or columns.

This layout is organized as a Row. The row contains two children: a column on the left, and an image on the right:

The left column’s widget tree nests rows and columns.

Aligning widgets

You control how a row or column aligns its children using the mainAxisAlignment and crossAxisAlignment properties. For a row, the main axis runs horizontally and the cross axis runs vertically. For a column, the main axis runs vertically and the cross axis runs horizontally.

The MainAxisAlignment and CrossAxisAlignment enums offer a variety of constants for controlling alignment.

In the following example, each of the 3 images is 100 pixels wide. The render box (in this case, the entire screen) is more than 300 pixels wide, so setting the main axis alignment to spaceEvenly divides the free horizontal space evenly between, before, and after each image.

Row(
  mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
  children: [
    Image.asset('images/pic1.jpg'),
    Image.asset('images/pic2.jpg'),
    Image.asset('images/pic3.jpg'),
  ],
);
Columns work the same way as rows. The following example shows a column of 3 images, each is 100 pixels high.
 The height of the render box (in this case, the entire screen) is more than 300 pixels,
 so setting the main axis alignment to spaceEvenly divides the free vertical space evenly between, above, and below each image. 

Column(
  mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
  children: [
    Image.asset('images/pic1.jpg'),
    Image.asset('images/pic2.jpg'),
    Image.asset('images/pic3.jpg'),
  ],
);

Sizing widgets

When a layout is too large to fit a device, a yellow and black striped pattern appears along the affected edge. Here is an example of a row that is too wide:

Widgets can be sized to fit within a row or column by using the Expanded widget. To fix the previous example where the row of images is too wide for its render box, wrap each image with an Expanded widget.

Row(
  crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.center,
  children: [
    Expanded(
      child: Image.asset('images/pic1.jpg'),
    ),
    Expanded(
      child: Image.asset('images/pic2.jpg'),
    ),
    Expanded(
      child: Image.asset('images/pic3.jpg'),
    ),
  ],
);

Perhaps you want a widget to occupy twice as much space as its siblings. For this, use the Expanded widget flex  property, an integer that determines the flex factor for a widget. The default flex factor is 1. The following code sets the flex factor of the middle image to 2: 

Row(
  crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.center,
  children: [
    Expanded(
      child: Image.asset('images/pic1.jpg'),
    ),
    Expanded(
      flex: 2,
      child: Image.asset('images/pic2.jpg'),
    ),
    Expanded(
      child: Image.asset('images/pic3.jpg'),
    ),
  ],
);

Packing widgets

By default, a row or column occupies as much space along its main axis as possible, but if you want to pack the children closely together, set its mainAxisSize to MainAxisSize.min. The following example uses this property to pack the star icons together.

Row(
  mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.min,
  children: [
    Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.green[500]),
    Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.green[500]),
    Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.green[500]),
    const Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.black),
    const Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.black),
  ],
)

Nesting rows and columns

The layout framework allows you to nest rows and columns inside of rows and columns as deeply as you need. Let’s look at the code for the outlined section of the following layout:

The outlined section is implemented as two rows. The ratings row contains five stars and the number of reviews. The icons row contains three columns of icons and text.

The widget tree for the ratings row

The ratings variable creates a row containing a smaller row of 5 star icons, and text:

var stars = Row(
  mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.min,
  children: [
    Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.green[500]),
    Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.green[500]),
    Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.green[500]),
    const Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.black),
    const Icon(Icons.star, color: Colors.black),
  ],
);

final ratings = Container(
  padding: const EdgeInsets.all(20),
  child: Row(
    mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
    children: [
      stars,
      const Text(
        '170 Reviews',
        style: TextStyle(
          color: Colors.black,
          fontWeight: FontWeight.w800,
          fontFamily: 'Roboto',
          letterSpacing: 0.5,
          fontSize: 20,
        ),
      ),
    ],
  ),
); The icons row, below the ratings row, contains 3 columns; each column contains an icon and two lines of text, as you can see in its widget tree:

The iconList variable defines the icons row:

const descTextStyle = TextStyle(
  color: Colors.black,
  fontWeight: FontWeight.w800,
  fontFamily: 'Roboto',
  letterSpacing: 0.5,
  fontSize: 18,
  height: 2,
);

// DefaultTextStyle.merge() allows you to create a default text
// style that is inherited by its child and all subsequent children.
final iconList = DefaultTextStyle.merge(
  style: descTextStyle,
  child: Container(
    padding: const EdgeInsets.all(20),
    child: Row(
      mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
      children: [
        Column(
          children: [
            Icon(Icons.kitchen, color: Colors.green[500]),
            const Text('PREP:'),
            const Text('25 min'),
          ],
        ),
        Column(
          children: [
            Icon(Icons.timer, color: Colors.green[500]),
            const Text('COOK:'),
            const Text('1 hr'),
          ],
        ),
        Column(
          children: [
            Icon(Icons.restaurant, color: Colors.green[500]),
            const Text('FEEDS:'),
            const Text('4-6'),
          ],
        ),
      ],
    ),
  ),
); The leftColumn variable contains the ratings and icons rows, as well as the title and text that describes the Pavlova:

final leftColumn = Container(
  padding: const EdgeInsets.fromLTRB(20, 30, 20, 20),
  child: Column(
    children: [
      titleText,
      subTitle,
      ratings,
      iconList,
    ],
  ),
);

The left column is placed in a SizedBox to constrain its width. Finally, the UI is constructed with the entire row (containing the left column and the image) inside a Card.

The Pavlova image is from Pixabay. You can embed an image from the net using Image.network() but, for this example, the image is saved to an images directory in the project, added to the pubspec file, and accessed using Images.asset(). For more information, see Adding assets and images.

body: Center(
  child: Container(
    margin: const EdgeInsets.fromLTRB(0, 40, 0, 30),
    height: 600,
    child: Card(
      child: Row(
        crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
        children: [
          SizedBox(
            width: 440,
            child: leftColumn,
          ),
          mainImage,
        ],
      ),
    ),
  ),
),

Common layout widgets

Flutter has a rich library of layout widgets. Here are a few of those most commonly used. The intent is to get you up and running as quickly as possible, rather than overwhelm you with a complete list. For information on other available widgets, refer to the Widget catalog, or use the Search box in the API reference docs. Also, the widget pages in the API docs often make suggestions about similar widgets that might better suit your needs.

The following widgets fall into two categories: standard widgets from the widgets library, and specialized widgets from the Material library. Any app can use the widgets library but only Material apps can use the Material Components library.