Flutter - DropdownButton overflow

I am experimenting with Flutter, and currently trying to display an input field and a dropdown in a list view in a dialog box. However, I get the drop-down overflowing the horizontal width of view and causing yellow-gray striped pattern (shown below)

[![enter image description here][1]][1]
Overflow of DropdownButton widget in ListView

The code is:
<!-- language: lang-java -->

class DataInput extends StatefulWidget {

@override
State createState() => new DataInputState("");
}


enum DismissDialogAction {
cancel,
discard,
save,
}

class DataInputState extends State<DataInput> {
final String _data;
static const types = const <Map<String, String>>[
const {
"id": "103",
"desc": "0001 - lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum lorem ipsum"
},
const {
"id": "804",
"desc": "0002 - lorem ipsum lorem ipsum"
},
];

DataInputState(this._data);

@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
final ThemeData theme = Theme.of(context);
return new Scaffold(
appBar: new AppBar(
title: const Text("Details"),
actions: <Widget>[
new FlatButton(
onPressed: () => Navigator.pop(context, DismissDialogAction.save),
child: new Row(
children: <Widget>[
new Icon(Icons.save, color: Colors.white,),
new Text(
"Save",
style: theme.textTheme.body1.copyWith(
color: Colors.white,)
)
],
)
),
],
),
body: new ListView(
shrinkWrap: true,
children: <Widget>[
new Text("Set Label"),
new TextField(
autocorrect: false,
),
new Text("Select Type"),
new Container(
width: new FractionColumnWidth(0.5).value,
child: new DropdownButton(
items: types.map((m) =>
new DropdownMenuItem(
key: new Key(m["id"]),
child: new Text(m["desc"]))
).toList(growable: false),
onChanged: null
),
),
],
),
);
}
}

Error:

══╡ EXCEPTION CAUGHT BY RENDERING LIBRARY ╞═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The following message was thrown during layout:
A horizontal RenderFlex overflowed by 433 pixels.

The edge of the RenderFlex that is overflowing has been marked in the rendering with a yellow and
black striped pattern. This is usually caused by the contents being too big for the RenderFlex.
RenderFlex to fit within the available space instead of being sized to their natural size.
This is considered an error condition because it indicates that there is content that cannot be
seen. If the content is legitimately bigger than the available space, consider clipping it with a
RectClip widget before putting it in the flex, or using a scrollable container rather than a Flex,
for example using ListView.
The specific RenderFlex in question is:
RenderFlex#cc264 relayoutBoundary=up12 OVERFLOWING
creator: Row ← SizedBox ← DefaultTextStyle ← Stack ← Listener ← _GestureSemantics ←
RawGestureDetector ← GestureDetector ← DropdownButton ← ConstrainedBox ← Container ←
RepaintBoundary-[<3>] ← ⋯
direction: horizontal
mainAxisAlignment: space-between
mainAxisSize: min
crossAxisAlignment: center
textDirection: ltr
verticalDirection: down


I have tried the following approaches, and they don't work:

- Wrapping the drop down in a Row, Column, Padding and ClipRect

Can someone help me understand this and show how to fix it?


**Update**
Using `FittedBox` prevents the overflow, but the text size then shrinks to be un-legible.


[1]:

I think you're running into a legit bug with the `DropDownButton` itself. There is a Github issue about the problem here:

[To see links please register here]

If you need an immediate fix, you can actually patch up the DropDownButton yourself! To do so:

1. Open the `dropdown.dart` from the Flutter Framework and paste it into your own project as `fixed_dropdown.dart`.
2. Delete the `DropDownMenuItem` class from this file so it does not cause conflicts with your normal Flutter imports
3. Rename `DropDownButton` to `FixedDropDownButton` so it does not conflict with Flutter imports
4. Navigate to the `build` method of the `_DropdownButtonState`. Find the `IndexedStack` inside a `Row`. Wrap the `IndexedStack` with an `Expanded` widget.

I posted this info on the Github Issue itself, and screenshots of this solution can be found there as well if you want to see the fix in action!

I managed to solve the issue by wrapping the child of DropdownMenuItem in a SizedBox and by giving sizedBox a fixed width which will not overflow the UI and still look good.

eg.

new DropdownMenuItem<String>(
value: value,
child: new SizedBox(
width: 200.0,
child: new Text('Long text with ${value} ')
),
)

Elaborating on ganapat answer you can set up the list this way:

final dropdownItems = _list
.map((String item) => new DropdownMenuItem<String>(
value: item,
child: new SizedBox(width: 200.0, child: new Text(item)),
))
.toList();

None of the above solves this problem properly.

please try FittedBox as [documented here][1]

just wrap your DropdownMenuItem's child like this

DropdownMenuItem<MyDropdownContentClass>(
child: FittedBox(
child: Text("dropdown item display"),
fit: BoxFit.contain,
),
);

it will automatically resize the whole widget during paint, which is your Text().

[1]:

[To see links please register here]

The easiest solution is to add the `isExpanded` property to `true` in `DropdownButton`

For example:

new DropdownButton(
isExpanded: true, //Adding this property, does the magic
items: [
new DropdownMenuItem(
child: Text("Some large text that needs to be wrapped or ellipsized",
overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis),
),
new DropdownMenuItem(
child: Text("This is another large text that needs to be wrapped or ellipsized",
overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis),
),
new DropdownMenuItem(
child: Text("And one more large text that needs to be wrapped or ellipsized",
overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis),
)
],
onChanged: (val) {
//print(val);
}),

Thanks for brianegan's answer.

After step 3, look at the class _DropdownMenuRouteLayout:

```
@override
BoxConstraints getConstraintsForChild(BoxConstraints constraints) {
// The maximum height of a simple menu should be one or more rows less than
// the view height. This ensures a tappable area outside of the simple menu
// with which to dismiss the menu.
// --

[To see links please register here]

final double maxHeight =
math.max(0.0, constraints.maxHeight - 2 * _kMenuItemHeight);
// The width of a menu should be at most the view width. This ensures that
// the menu does not extend past the left and right edges of the screen.
final double width = math.min(constraints.maxWidth, buttonRect.width);
return BoxConstraints(
minWidth: width,
maxWidth: width,
minHeight: 0.0,
maxHeight: maxHeight,
);
}
```

You can implement the 'maxWith' in your own way.

In order for this to work if you are using a row, you have to set both the row child to **Expanded**, and the DropdownButton **isExpanded** property:

Row(
children: <Widget>[
Expanded(
child: DropdownButton<String>(
isExpanded: true,
value: _selectedLanguageNative,
items: list,
hint: Text(LanguageLocal.getDisplayLanguage(
Localizations.localeOf(context).languageCode)["name"]),
onChanged: (String value) {
print(value);
setState(() {
_selectedLanguageNative = value;
});
},
),
),
],
),

I struggled with this and eventually found a perfectly good solution to the problem that @Dah raises. It is hinted at in the Github issue [Look at Sep 18, 2019][1]: to make use of the selectedItemBuilder property of the DropDownButton.
There is also a good working example here [Flutter Docs][2].
I'm including a segment of my code which simply puts ellipsis in place of long text in the dropdownbutton when it is closed. It does his by making use of the returned Text() widget of the selectedItemBuilder, which allows the overflow property to set the ellipsis:

child: DropdownButton<String>(
isExpanded: true,
hint: Text('Select Faculty'),
value: selectedFaculty,
underline: Container(
height: 0,
),
onChanged: (String value) async {
selectedFaculty = value;
},
selectedItemBuilder: (BuildContext context) {
return dropFaculty.map<Widget>((String text) {
return Text(
text,
overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis,
);
}).toList();
},
items: disableKeyFields || selectedInstitution == null
? null
: dropFaculty.map((String faculty) {
return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
value: faculty,
child: Text(
faculty,
style: TextStyle(color: Colors.black),
),
);
}).toList(),
),


[1]:

[To see links please register here]

[2]:

[To see links please register here]

**Try using `isExpanded: true,`**

It will automatically extend the text to new line


DropdownButton(
isExpanded: true, //Add this property
items: [
DropdownMenuItem(
child: Text("Your Text Here",
overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis),
),
}),

Refer below image

There was not enough space to text in a line so continued with next line

[![enter image description here][1]][1]

[1]: