NSLayoutConstraint programmatically set view frame

Here's a solution (should go in -viewDidLoad). There are a a couple of things to note:

Firstly, VFL doesn't allow you to create all possible types of constraint. In particular, centering needs to be done with the +constraintWithItem: class method on NSLayoutConstraint.

Secondly, as noted in the comments, you could just use hardcoded left and right pad values in the horizontal VFL string to achieve the centering, but this might cause problems if you need to support different device sizes.

Thirdly, the call to -setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints: is critical. Programmatic Autolayout will completely fail to work if you forget this. Also you need ensure all views are added to their superviews before setting up constraints, otherwise any constraint string referencing a superview will cause a crash

NSArray *names = @[@"button1",@"button2",@"button3"];
NSMutableDictionary *views = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]init];

for(NSUInteger i=0;i<3;i++) {
    UIButton *b = [[UIButton alloc]init];
    NSString *name = names[i];
    [b setTitle:name forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    views[name] = b;
    [b setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];
    [b setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:false];
    [self.view addSubview:b];
}
//List of values to be used in the constraints
NSDictionary *metrics = @{
  @"buttonWidth":@150,
  @"bHeight":@50, //button height
  @"topPad":@100,
  @"vPad":@20 //vertical padding
};

//Horizontal VFL string (repeated for all rows).

for (NSString *buttonName in views.allKeys) {
    NSString *horizontalConstraintString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"|-(>=0)-[%@(buttonWidth)]-(>=0)-|",buttonName];
    NSArray *horizontalConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:horizontalConstraintString options:0 metrics:metrics views:views];
    [self.view addConstraints:horizontalConstraints];
    //Can't do centering with VFL - have to use constructor instead. You could also hardcode left and right padding in the VFL string above, but this will make it harder to deal with different screen sizes
    NSLayoutConstraint *centerConstraint = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.view attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:views[buttonName] attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier:1.0 constant:0.0];

    [self.view addConstraint:centerConstraint];
}

//Vertical VFL (vertical spacing of all buttons)

NSString *verticalConstraintString = @"V:|-topPad-[button1(bHeight)]-vPad-[button2(bHeight)]-vPad-[button3(bHeight)]-(>=0)-|";
NSArray *verticalConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:verticalConstraintString options:0 metrics:metrics views:views];

[self.view addConstraints:verticalConstraints];
[self.view layoutIfNeeded];