Widget initialized later will not show in MainWindow - c++

Question

I am learning Qt using Qt 5.13 on MacOS.
First I define MyWidget inherited from QWidget. MyWidget has a QPushButton, but this button will be created in a slot function called 'fresh', not in constructor.
I add MyWidget in MainWindow (inherited from QMainWindow), and defined another button_2 to emit signal to callMyWidget's 'fresh' function to create button.
If I did not hide MyWidget in MainWindow first, MyWidget's button will not show. If I hide MyWidget first, everything seems OK.
I hope to know the reason. Thanks
I tried to repaint or update MyWidget in 'fresh' function, but did not help.
mywidget.h
#ifndef MYWIDGET_H
#define MYWIDGET_H
#include <QWidget>
#include<QPushButton>
class MyWidget : public QWidget
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MyWidget(QWidget *parent = nullptr);
~MyWidget();
public slots:
void fresh();
private:
QPushButton* myButton;
};
#endif // WIDGET_H
mywidget.cpp
#include "mywidget.h"
MyWidget::MyWidget(QWidget *parent) :
QWidget(parent)
{
}
MyWidget::~MyWidget()
{
}
void MyWidget::fresh()
{
myButton = new QPushButton(this);
myButton->setStyleSheet("QPushButton { background-color: green;}");
show();
}
mainwindow.h
#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
#include"mywidget.h"
#include<QHBoxLayout>
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = nullptr);
signals:
public slots:
private:
MyWidget* myWidget;
};
#endif // MAINWINDOW_H
MainWindow.cpp
#include "mainwindow.h"
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) : QMainWindow(parent)
{
QWidget* qwidget = new QWidget;
myWidget = new MyWidget(this);
QPushButton* button = new QPushButton("Show",this);
QHBoxLayout* mainLayout = new QHBoxLayout;
mainLayout->addWidget(myWidget);
mainLayout->addWidget(button);
qwidget->setLayout(mainLayout);
setCentralWidget(qwidget);
//myWidget->hide();
connect(button,&QPushButton::clicked,myWidget,&MyWidget::fresh);
}
main.cpp
#include "mywidget.h"
#include"mainwindow.h"
#include<QApplication>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QApplication a(argc, argv);
MainWindow w;
w.show();
return a.exec();
}
If I add myWidget->hide(); in mainwindow.cpp, it seems right.
If I remove it, the green button will not show, even if I repaint or update or show in fresh function.

Answer 1

'mywidget' is taking the whole space, if you want to know if it is taking all the space or not :
mywidget->setStyleSheet("* {border: 4px solid orange;}")
Since you are using a layout, you might want to determine the minimum size of a QPushButton. the QPushButton has a default horizontal size policy : "Minimum", by default. Maybe if you set the minimum width using this function : "setMinimumWidth(int width)", might fix your problem.
Also, don't forget to call this :
myButton->show();
Every object that inherits from QObject should be shown with this func ".show".
Here is all the flags for QSizePolicy will help you understand what is going on in layouts (layouts work a lot with QSizePlicy flags) : https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qsizepolicy.html#Policy-enum .
Unless you don't want the layout, you have to specify the position and the size in this way :
mywidget->setGeometry(QPoint(x, y), QSize(width, height));
and the same thing for your buttons.