CSS: center elements inside <div> side by side - html

Question

i've been trying all night to center this elements without having them stacked on each other:
I've tried floating them to the left it works, but, they stick to the left side no matter what i did.
HTML:
<div class="center pages clearfix">
<buuton class="center page-number">1</buuton>
<buuton class="center page-number">2</buuton>
<buuton class="center page-number">3</buuton>
</div>
CSS:
.center {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
.page-number {
display: block;
float: none;
width: 28px;
height: auto;
border-radius: 3px;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.47);
box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.34);
text-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
font-weight: 400;
line-height: 1.5;
text-align: center;
color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.47);
}

Answer 1

just update "display:block" to "display:inline-block" like the below updated css
updated css
.center {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
text-align:center;
}
.page-number {
display: inline-block;
float: none;
width: 28px;
height: auto;
border-radius: 3px;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.47);
box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.34);
text-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
font-weight: 400;
line-height: 1.5;
text-align: center;
color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.47);
}
demo

Answer 2

Try this: https://jsfiddle.net/uo23L4n4/
use inline-block instead of block for the buttons.
use text-align:center
<button class=" page-number">1</button>
.center {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
text-align: center;
}
.page-number {
display: inline-block;
float: none;
width: 28px;
height: auto;
border-radius: 3px;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.47);
box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.34);
text-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
font-weight: 400;
line-height: 1.5;
text-align: center;
color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.47);
}

Answer 3

Change your mark up to a list, makes it very easy to do this.
<ul class="center pages clearfix">
<li><buuton class="center page-number">1</buuton></li>
<li><buuton class="center page-number">2</buuton></li>
<li><buuton class="center page-number">3</buuton></li>
</ul>
Use this css
ul{
list-style:none;
}
li{
display:inline-block;
}