QScrollArea with dynamically changing contents

The essential steps are:

1. The container widget that holds the buttons (your CheckableButtonGroup) must have a QLayout::SetMinAndMaxSize size constraint set. Then it will be exactly large enough to hold the buttons. Its size policy doesn’t matter, since you’re simply putting it into a QScrollArea, not into another layout.

2. The scroll area needs to set its maximum size according to the size of the widget it holds. The default implementation doesn’t do it, so one has to implement it by spying on resize events of the embedded widget.

The code below is a minimal example that works under both Qt 4.8 and 5.2.

// https://github.com/KubaO/stackoverflown/tree/master/questions/scrollgrow-21253755
#include <QtGui>
#if QT_VERSION >= QT_VERSION_CHECK(5,0,0)
#include <QtWidgets>
#endif

class ButtonGroup : public QWidget {
   Q_OBJECT
   QHBoxLayout m_layout{this};
public:
   ButtonGroup(QWidget * parent = 0) : QWidget{parent} {
      m_layout.setSizeConstraint(QLayout::SetMinAndMaxSize); // <<< Essential
   }
   Q_SLOT void addButton() {
      auto n = m_layout.count();
      m_layout.addWidget(new QPushButton{QString{"Btn #%1"}.arg(n+1)});
   }
};

class AdjustingScrollArea : public QScrollArea {
   bool eventFilter(QObject * obj, QEvent * ev) {
      if (obj == widget() && ev->type() == QEvent::Resize) {
         // Essential vvv
         setMaximumWidth(width() - viewport()->width() + widget()->width());
      }
      return QScrollArea::eventFilter(obj, ev);
   }
public:
   AdjustingScrollArea(QWidget * parent = 0) : QScrollArea{parent} {}
   void setWidget(QWidget *w) {
      QScrollArea::setWidget(w);
      // It happens that QScrollArea already filters widget events,
      // but that's an implementation detail that we shouldn't rely on.
      w->installEventFilter(this);
   }
};

class Window : public QWidget {
   QGridLayout         m_layout{this};
   QLabel              m_left{">>"};
   AdjustingScrollArea m_area;
   QLabel              m_right{"<<"};
   QPushButton         m_add{"Add a widget"};
   ButtonGroup         m_group;
public:
   Window() {
      m_layout.addWidget(&m_left, 0, 0);
      m_left.setSizePolicy(QSizePolicy::Maximum, QSizePolicy::Preferred);
      m_left.setStyleSheet("border: 1px solid green");

      m_layout.addWidget(&m_area, 0, 1);
      m_area.setSizePolicy(QSizePolicy::MinimumExpanding, QSizePolicy::Preferred);
      m_area.setStyleSheet("QScrollArea { border: 1px solid blue }");
      m_area.setWidget(&m_group);
      m_layout.setColumnStretch(1, 1);

      m_layout.addWidget(&m_right, 0, 2);
      m_right.setSizePolicy(QSizePolicy::Expanding, QSizePolicy::Preferred);
      m_right.setStyleSheet("border: 1px solid green");

      m_layout.addWidget(&m_add, 1, 0, 1, 3);
      connect(&m_add, SIGNAL(clicked()), &m_group, SLOT(addButton()));
   }
};

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   QApplication a{argc, argv};
   Window w;
   w.show();
   return a.exec();
}

#include "main.moc"