Related
Here is the demo http://jsfiddle.net/aTBWh/
the container is id(div) meaning it inherits a display:block value from the browser, the two div's inside this container are classes. they both have 200px and 300px while the main container has 600px width, so I thought when I floated one of the classes to the right, it should only consume 300px from the whole container meaning the two div's should fit inside the container without one appearing above the other. there is no clear:both attribute.
if the container is an id, with 600px, then the classes nested inside it (specially when one is floated to right, they should fill the container.)
in a nutshell why is the green div class out of the container when it can clearly fit there, and it is floated to the right? I don't understand this problem.
codes:
css
#content_canvas_container{
background:#CCC;
min-height:200px;
border:1px solid red;
width:600px;
}
.red{
width:200px;
background:red;
height:140px;
}
.green{
width:300px;
background:green;
height:140px;
float:right;
}
/*PROPERTIES*/
.w90{width:98%}
.m_auto{margin:auto; border:1px solid black}
html
<section id='content_canvas_container'>
<div class='w90 m_auto'>
<div class='red'> red </div>
<div class='green'> green </div>
</div>
</section>
What you are seeing is expected behavior.
The reason this is occurring is because the red div element is a block level element by default. Thus, in its current state, it will always appear on a new line regardless of whether it has a defined width or has floating sibling elements.
By floating or absolutely positioning an element, you are essentially removing it from the flow of the document, rendering display:block ineffective. Therefore you can solve this by either floating the red div element, or adding display:inline-block to it. (example)
jsFiddle example
.red {
width: 200px;
background: red;
height: 140px;
float: left;
}
That happens because when you set a float to a box, it moves to the left or the right of the container (according with other complex rules, of course), but it's vertical offset from the top of the container can't be smaller than it would be if it wasn't floated.
The browser is making a decision based on what you are telling it to do.
You haven't specified a float on the red div, so it remains in flow and acts as a normal block level element does i.e. "push everything after me to the next row".
You then tell the green div to float right in it's container, so it shifts over to the right.
Using float:left will allow other elements to wrap around it. (CSS-float)
The float CSS property specifies that an element should be taken from the normal flow and placed along the left or right side of its container, where text and inline elements will wrap around it. A floating element is one where the computed value of float is not none.
.red{
float:left;
}
Fiddle
To understand why other elements won't wrap around your div by default, read up on block-level elements here.
"Block-level" is categorization of HTML elements, as contrasted with "inline" elements. Block-level elements may appear only within a element. Their most significant characteristic is that they typically are formatted with a line break before and after the element (thereby creating a stand-alone block of content). That is, they take up the width of their containers.
By default your div elements are block-level until you specify otherwise. The link I referrenced gives a list of all the elements that are block-level by default.
This happens because DIV are block-level elements, it means they begin in new lines. In your example when floating .green to the right, .red element still takes 100% of horizontal space, and .green takes now 300px but it is pushed down because as a block level element it belongs to the next line. To avoid this behavior, you must transform block elements into inline elements.
So in this case if you would like to float .green to the right, DIV elements within the parent wrapper should be rendered as inline blocks instead of independent blocks, just adding this rule:
.m_auto div {
display: inline-block;
}
Cheers.
I would like to ask how height and float work. I have an outer div and an inner div that has content in it. Its height may vary depending on the content of the inner div but it seems that my inner div will overflow its outside div. What would be the proper way to do it?
<html>
<body>
<div style="margin:0 auto;width: 960px; min-height: 100px; background-color:orange">
<div style="width:500px; height:200px; background-color:black; float:right"></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
The floated elements do not add to the height of the container element, and hence if you don't clear them, container height won't increase...
I'll show you visually:
More Explanation:
<div>
<div style="float: left;"></div>
<div style="width: 15px;"></div> <!-- This will shift
besides the top div. Why? Because of the top div
is floated left, making the
rest of the space blank -->
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
<!-- Now in order to prevent the next div from floating beside the top ones,
we use `clear: both;`. This is like a wall, so now none of the div's
will be floated after this point. The container height will now also include the
height of these floated divs -->
<div></div>
</div>
You can also add overflow: hidden; on container elements, but I would suggest you use clear: both; instead.
Also if you might like to self-clear an element you can use
.self_clear:after {
content: "";
clear: both;
display: table;
}
How Does CSS Float Work?
What is float exactly and what does it do?
The float property is misunderstood by most beginners. Well, what exactly does float do? Initially, the float property was introduced to flow text around images, which are floated left or right. Here's another explanation by #Madara Uchicha. So, is it wrong to use the float property for placing boxes side by side? The answer is no; there is no problem if you use the float property in order to set boxes side by side.
Floating an inline or block level element will make the element behave like an inline-block element.Demo
If you float an element left or right, the width of the element will be limited to the content it holds, unless width is defined explicitly ...
You cannot float an element center. This is the biggest issue I've always seen with beginners, using float: center;, which is not a valid value for the float property. float is generally used to float/move content to the very left or to the very right. There are only four valid values for float property i.e left, right, none (default) and inherit.
Parent element collapses, when it contains floated child elements, in order to prevent this, we use clear: both; property, to clear the floated elements on both the sides, which will prevent the collapsing of the parent element. For more information, you can refer my another answer here.
(Important) Think of it where we have a stack of various elements. When we use float: left; or float: right; the element moves above the stack by one. Hence the elements in the normal document flow will hide behind the floated elements because it is on stack level above the normal floated elements. (Please don't relate this to z-index as that is completely different.)
Taking a case as an example to explain how CSS floats work, assuming we need a simple 2 column layout with a header, footer, and 2 columns, so here is what the blueprint looks like...
In the above example, we will be floating only the red boxes, either you can float both to the left, or you can float on to left, and another to right as well, depends on the layout, if it's 3 columns, you may float 2 columns to left where another one to the right so depends, though in this example, we have a simplified 2 column layout so will float one to left and the other to the right.
Markup and styles for creating the layout explained further down...
<div class="main_wrap">
<header>Header</header>
<div class="wrapper clear">
<div class="floated_left">
This<br />
is<br />
just<br />
a<br />
left<br />
floated<br />
column<br />
</div>
<div class="floated_right">
This<br />
is<br />
just<br />
a<br />
right<br />
floated<br />
column<br />
</div>
</div>
<footer>Footer</footer>
</div>
* {
-moz-box-sizing: border-box; /* Just for demo purpose */
-webkkit-box-sizing: border-box; /* Just for demo purpose */
box-sizing: border-box; /* Just for demo purpose */
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
.main_wrap {
margin: 20px;
border: 3px solid black;
width: 520px;
}
header, footer {
height: 50px;
border: 3px solid silver;
text-align: center;
line-height: 50px;
}
.wrapper {
border: 3px solid green;
}
.floated_left {
float: left;
width: 200px;
border: 3px solid red;
}
.floated_right {
float: right;
width: 300px;
border: 3px solid red;
}
.clear:after {
clear: both;
content: "";
display: table;
}
Let's go step by step with the layout and see how float works..
First of all, we use the main wrapper element, you can just assume that it's your viewport, then we use header and assign a height of 50px so nothing fancy there. It's just a normal non floated block level element which will take up 100% horizontal space unless it's floated or we assign inline-block to it.
The first valid value for float is left so in our example, we use float: left; for .floated_left, so we intend to float a block to the left of our container element.
Column floated to the left
And yes, if you see, the parent element, which is .wrapper is collapsed, the one you see with a green border didn't expand, but it should right? Will come back to that in a while, for now, we have got a column floated to left.
Coming to the second column, lets it float this one to the right
Another column floated to the right
Here, we have a 300px wide column which we float to the right, which will sit beside the first column as it's floated to the left, and since it's floated to the left, it created empty gutter to the right, and since there was ample of space on the right, our right floated element sat perfectly beside the left one.
Still, the parent element is collapsed, well, let's fix that now. There are many ways to prevent the parent element from getting collapsed.
Add an empty block level element and use clear: both; before the parent element ends, which holds floated elements, now this one is a cheap solution to clear your floating elements which will do the job for you but, I would recommend not to use this.
Add, <div style="clear: both;"></div> before the .wrapper div ends, like
<div class="wrapper clear">
<!-- Floated columns -->
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
</div>
Demo
Well, that fixes very well, no collapsed parent anymore, but it adds unnecessary markup to the DOM, so some suggest, to use overflow: hidden; on the parent element holding floated child elements which work as intended.
Use overflow: hidden; on .wrapper
.wrapper {
border: 3px solid green;
overflow: hidden;
}
Demo
That saves us an element every time we need to clear float but as I tested various cases with this, it failed in one particular one, which uses box-shadow on the child elements.
Demo (Can't see the shadow on all 4 sides, overflow: hidden; causes this issue)
So what now? Save an element, no overflow: hidden; so go for a clear fix hack, use the below snippet in your CSS, and just as you use overflow: hidden; for the parent element, call the class below on the parent element to self-clear.
.clear:after {
clear: both;
content: "";
display: table;
}
<div class="wrapper clear">
<!-- Floated Elements -->
</div>
Demo
Here, shadow works as intended, also, it self-clears the parent element which prevents to collapse.
And lastly, we use footer after we clear the floated elements.
Demo
When is float: none; used anyways, as it is the default, so any use to declare float: none;?
Well, it depends, if you are going for a responsive design, you will use this value a lot of times, when you want your floated elements to render one below another at a certain resolution. For that float: none; property plays an important role there.
Few real-world examples of how float is useful.
The first example we already saw is to create one or more than one column layouts.
Using img floated inside p which will enable our content to flow around.
Demo (Without floating img)
Demo 2 (img floated to the left)
Using float for creating horizontal menu - Demo
Float second element as well, or use `margin`
Last but not the least, I want to explain this particular case where you float only single element to the left but you do not float the other, so what happens?
Suppose if we remove float: right; from our .floated_right class, the div will be rendered from extreme left as it isn't floated.
Demo
So in this case, either you can float the to the left as well
OR
You can use margin-left which will be equal to the size of the left floated column i.e 200px wide.
You need to add overflow:auto to your parent div for it to encompass the inner floated div:
<div style="margin:0 auto;width: 960px; min-height: 100px; background-color:orange;overflow:auto">
<div style="width:500px; height:200px; background-color:black; float:right">
</div>
</div>
jsFiddle example
You are encountering the float bug (though I'm not sure if it's technically a bug due to how many browsers exhibit this behaviour). Here is what is happening:
Under normal circumstances, assuming that no explicit height has been set, a block level element such as a div will set its height based on its content. The bottom of the parent div will extend beyond the last element. Unfortunately, floating an element stops the parent from taking the floated element into account when determining its height. This means that if your last element is floated, it will not "stretch" the parent in the same way a normal element would.
Clearing
There are two common ways to fix this. The first is to add a "clearing" element; that is, another element below the floated one that will force the parent to stretch. So add the following html as the last child:
<div style="clear:both"></div>
It shouldn't be visible, and by using clear:both, you make sure that it won't sit next to the floated element, but after it.
Overflow:
The second method, which is preferred by most people (I think) is to change the CSS of the parent element so that the overflow is anything but "visible". So setting the overflow to "hidden" will force the parent to stretch beyond the bottom of the floated child. This is only true if you haven't set a height on the parent, of course.
Like I said, the second method is preferred as it doesn't require you to go and add semantically meaningless elements to your markup, but there are times when you need the overflow to be visible, in which case adding a clearing element is more than acceptable.
Its because of the float of the div. Add overflow: hidden on the outside element.
<div style="overflow:hidden; margin:0 auto;width: 960px; min-height: 100px; background-color:orange;">
<div style="width:500px; height:200px; background-color:black; float:right">
</div>
</div>
Demo
You confuse how browsers renders the elements when there are floating elements. If one block element is floating (your inner div in your case), other block elements will ignore it because browser removes floating elements from the normal flow of the web page. Then, because the floated div has been removed from the normal flow, the outside div is filled in, like the inner div isn't there. However, inline elements (images, links, text, blackquotes) will respect the boundaries of the floating element. If you introduce text in the outside div, the text will place arround de inner div.
In other words, block elements (headers, paragraphs, divs, etc) ignore floating elements and fill in, and inline elements (images, links, text, etc) respect boundaries of floating elements.
An fiddle example here
<body>
<div style="float:right; background-color:blue;width:200px;min-height:400px;margin-right:20px">
floating element
</div>
<h1 style="background-color:red;"> this is a big header</h1>
<p style="background-color:green"> this is a parragraph with text and a big image. The text places arrounds the floating element. Because of the image is wider than space between paragrah and floating element places down the floating element. Try to make wider the viewport and see what happens :D
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nKxzQGcCLtQ/TBYPAJ6xM4I/AAAAAAAAAC8/lG6XemOXosU/s1600/css.png">
</p>
Try this one
.parent_div{
display: flex;
}
you can use overflow property to the container div if you don't have any div to show over the container eg:
<div class="cointainer">
<div class="one">Content One</div>
<div class="two">Content Two</div>
</div>
Here is the following css:
.container{
width:100%;/* As per your requirment */
height:auto;
float:left;
overflow:hidden;
}
.one{
width:200px;/* As per your requirment */
height:auto;
float:left;
}
.two{
width:200px;/* As per your requirment */
height:auto;
float:left;
}
-----------------------OR------------------------------
<div class="cointainer">
<div class="one">Content One</div>
<div class="two">Content Two</div>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
Here is the following css:
.container{
width:100%;/* As per your requirment */
height:auto;
float:left;
overflow:hidden;
}
.one{
width:200px;/* As per your requirment */
height:auto;
float:left;
}
.two{
width:200px;/* As per your requirment */
height:auto;
float:left;
}
.clearfix:before,
.clearfix:after{
display: table;
content: " ";
}
.clearfix:after{
clear: both;
}
I feel like CSS is much harder and confusing than C++ therefore I have few questions.
Consider following html body
<div id="mydiv1">12345~~~~~~~~/</div><div id="mydiv2">+_______67890</div>
And CSS
#mydiv1 {
float: left;
background-color: red;
margin-right: -30px;
}
#mydiv2 {
float: left;
background-color: blue;
}
which looks like this (in my latest Chrome)
which makes sense to me because second div is floating and it floats over first div.
On the other hand if I remove float property from mydiv2 only content moves but background box stays in the same place.
1) Could you please explain why ?
Now I'll remove margin and float, and add width to both divs making having CSS
#mydiv1 {
background-color: red;
width: 220px;
}
#mydiv2 {
background-color: blue;
width: 240px;
}
It will expectantly look like this
But if I add float: left to #mydiv1 it suddenly looks like this
2) Why did second div become twice as high ? I checked it by setting z-index of first div to -1.
PS. I've done tutorials on CodeAcademy and read float/margin-related articles on smashingmagazine.com. Sadly it didn't made everything crystal clear. If you guys can suggest online resources or book that would have explained these questions to me I'll appreciate it a lot.
<div> is a block-level element so it naturally fills the width of the container it's in. It makes its neighboring elements go above/below it, but not beside it.
Now, when you apply float to a block-level element, it no longer fills the width of the container, its width will be that of its contents. It also loses the ability to force its neighbors to go above/below it.
Note:The tricky bit is that the container holding the floated elements will not have a proper height because the floated elements are no longer part of the regular flow of content. (Here's how to get around it: http://www.quirksmode.org/css/clearing.html)
Regarding the last part of your question, if a floated element, eg. #mydiv1, is beside a block-level, eg. #mydiv2, then the block-level element wraps or flows around the floated element. It's one of the ways people can get text to wrap around an image in a news article.
When you remove the float from div2 it goes behind the floated div1, because floated elements does not take any height from it's content. You can say it's going out of the vertical flow of elements. However, it still take horizontal space from content. So the result is as expected here, once you "know the rules".
This should also explain the double height in your other example.
Here is a great article from css-tricks.com
I hope that helps!
If we don't give either float or width to any block level element like div then it occupies the entire width of the container.
Instead of float you can give some width and display: inline-block. This display property will display content inline and behaves like a block level element.
Can someone take a look at the following fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/R4bCy/1/
I thought that a div should adjust it's height in order to accommodate it's elements, unless the elements are positioned absolutely.
Why does the div not expand to the full height of the image?
I need to the image to be aligned to the right. The only ways that I know how to do this is align='right', position:absolute; right: 0; and float:right, all of which make the containing div not adjust it's height to the image height.
.intro {
margin: 10px;
outline: 1px solid #CCC;
background: #A00;
color: #FFF;
height:auto;
overflow:auto;
}
.img{
float:right;
height:auto;
}
<div class="intro">
<div class="img"> <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_74so2YIdYpM/TEd09Hqrm6I/AAAAAAAAApY/rwGCm5_Tawg/s1600/tall+copy.jpg" style="margin: 10px 10px; "/></div>
<p>Sorry, but the page you requested could not be found.</p>
</div>
DEMO
'Why does the div not expand to the full height of the image?'
Because floats will overlap with blocks, only block formatting contexts contain floats. (You can find a pretty good overview of the whole topic here: http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2010/05/19/css-101-block-formatting-contexts/ )
On to solve the problem at hand:
The align=right will actually result in the img being float: right (the align attribute is deprecated and css should be used).
To contain the floated image in its parent div you need either have the parent div establish a block formatting context (block formatting contexts enclose nested floats) or explicitly clear the float with an additional element after the img that is styled as a clear: right.
An easy solution to create a block formatting context is to float the parent div as well, although my preferred solution in this case would be to simply set its overflow to hidden (also resulting in a block formatting context).
Check out the updated fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/R4bCy/8/.
What you need to do is add after the p tag,
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
Whoops, apologies, posted and you edited your question - the align right is floating it I believe (you should instead use float:right and a clearfix of some sort).
example: http://jsfiddle.net/R4bCy/5/
This is what I believe you want:
http://jsfiddle.net/R4bCy/6/
If you wanted the text on the left and the image floated to the right, please do this is your CSS:
http://jsfiddle.net/R4bCy/15/
You can also have two divs that have a width of 50% contained within a container div. This will allow you a little more flexibility in your placement of the image because the text and image will each have their own modifiable divs with independent attributes
I have a floated container with multiple child floated divs.
I want to center align (not text-align) all these floated child divs with respect to the floated container.
How do I do that ?
At a time, only 1 of these child div is visible on the browser ..User clicks on Prev/Next to view other child divs (kind of like Carousel)
Apparently I am facing issues center aligning if I use float:left for the child div.
You cannot align a floated element relative to a parent element.
The float CSS property rips an element from its context in the document (similarly to position:absolute/fixed). As a result of this, the element cannot be positioned "at the center of the parent".
I was searching for a solution today for my three divs inside a parent container and I came across this old post where a good solution doesn't seem to have been offered.
My situation: I have a parent container with width:100% so that it fits the screen. I also set a max-width so that the parent container doesn't grow too large. At the max-width I want the three child divs to display all in one row.
As the page is reduced and the parent container shrinks in width, I want the three child divs to reflow, each child div being pushed under the previous child div until they are all stacked vertically. As this happens I want the child divs to stay center aligned within the parent container.
The solution is to not use float which "rips an element from its context" as Rob W truly states, but instead use inline-blocks:
.parentContainer{
margin:0 auto; /*keep centered in page*/
width:100%; /*stretch to page*/
max-width:800px; /*expand up to 800px*/
text-align:center; /*keep my children centered*/
}
.childDiv{
display:inline-block /*treat me as a block that flows like text*/
width:230px; /*set my size*/
vertical-align:top; /*keep me aligned at the top of my parent even if my siblings are taller than me*/
}
<div class='parentContainer'>
<div class='childDiv'>Content 1</div>
<div class='childDiv'>Content 2</div>
<div class='childDiv'>Content 3</div>
</div>
You can float the parent container, give it absolute positioning, pretty much whatever, and the child divs will keep their same behavior.
cheers
If you show only one child div at once, probably they don't need to float. The best way to center a non-floated block inside of another block is to assign the following style:
.child {
margin: 0 auto;
}
This will center the div.child because both left and right margins will span equally to fit the parent container. Similarly, you can align divs to the left and to the right:
.left {
margin-right: auto;
}
.right {
margin-left: auto;
}
If you have a fixed width for both container and children, then you can use margin-left and margin-right set to (container div width - contained width width)/2. Of course, if you have paddings and borders, you have to account for them in the formula.