Question: Would anybody know why the following code results in the first label being wider than the second one? The first box (shorter text) measures 21 pixels in width, the second box 19 pixels. 

```
<mx:VBox>
    <mx:HBox id="lbl1" backgroundColor="#6789ad">
        <mx:Label fontWeight="bold" color="white" text="0" />
    </mx:HBox>
    <mx:HBox id="lbl3" backgroundColor="#6789ad">
        <mx:Label fontWeight="bold" color="white" text="12" />
    </mx:HBox>
</mx:VBox>

```

I ran this on Flex 3.4 and Flex 3.5. Same same but different using Flex 4, first box 20 pixels, second 19 again.

Cheers
Tom

Answer: 
The culprit may be the `getMinimumText` function in `mx.controls.Label`--essentially it enforces a 2 character minimum width on labels (specifically, measures any 0 or 1 character labels as if they contained "Wj").

To see if that's it, try replacing your "12" text with "Wj" and see if they come out the same size.

`getMinimumText` is overridden in `SliderLabel` to make the minimum 1 character ("W") instead. I assume it does that to allow centering of 1 character labels (over slider ticks). That's all SliderLabel does, so you might just use it instead.
If you don't set a width on a container, it is only going to be as big as the contents need it to be. Trying setting a width on each of the `HBox` containers - explicit, as in `width="50"`, or percentage, as in `width="100%"`. A percentage width will make the `HBox` fill the width of the parent `VBox`.

```
<mx:VBox>
    <mx:HBox id="lbl1" backgroundColor="#6789ad" width="50">
        <mx:Label fontWeight="bold" color="white" text="0" />
    </mx:HBox>
    <mx:HBox id="lbl3" backgroundColor="#6789ad" width-"50">
        <mx:Label fontWeight="bold" color="white" text="12" />
    </mx:HBox>
</mx:VBox>

```

or

```
<mx:VBox width="50">
    <mx:HBox id="lbl1" backgroundColor="#6789ad" width="100%">
        <mx:Label fontWeight="bold" color="white" text="0" />
    </mx:HBox>
    <mx:HBox id="lbl3" backgroundColor="#6789ad" width="100%">
        <mx:Label fontWeight="bold" color="white" text="12" />
    </mx:HBox>
</mx:VBox>

```

Give it a shot....