Make content min-height fill the screen - html

Question

As an example, I've made a fiddle:
https://jsfiddle.net/L7mwpzux/3/
How do I make the div .container minimally fill the screen?
So when there is almost no content, it still fills the screen.
It's for a page that is shown when the checkout cart is empty. The content is too thin, so the screen is not fully filled with content.
P.s. I am not looking for an answer that assumes that the header or footer has a static height. I want to be able to use it also in situations where the height of the header or footer is variable.
Also, I would love a CSS solution, so no JavaScript or jQuery

Answer 1

You can use calc() and set 100vh - height of header, also add box-sizing: border-box to keep padding inside.
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
body,
html {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
header {
height: 200px;
background-color: blue;
width: 100%;
}
.container {
padding: 50px;
min-height: calc(100vh - 200px);
}
footer {
width: 100%;
height: 200px;
background-color: #333;
}
<header>
</header>
<div class="container">
small text
</div>
<footer>
</footer>
Other approach is to use Flexbox and set display: flex on body which is parent element in this case with min-height: 100vh and then just set flex: 1 on .container so it takes rest of free height.
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
body,
html {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
body {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
min-height: 100vh;
}
header {
height: 100px;
background-color: blue;
}
.container {
padding: 50px;
flex: 1;
}
footer {
height: 100px;
background-color: #333;
}
<header>
</header>
<div class="container">
small text
</div>
<footer>
</footer>

Answer 2

try this
min-height: calc(100vh - 400px);
here is the fiddle https://jsfiddle.net/L7mwpzux/1/