How to center group of divs inside div? - html

Question

I am a bit newbie with CSS and i am pretty obfuscated trying to center a group of divs inside a div. What i want:
divs 2,3 and 4 should be centered inside div1.
My approach:
.div1 {
display: inline-block;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center;
}
.restofdivs {
width: 470px;
margin: 20px;
min-height: 1px;
float:center
}
the result is: the 3 divs (2,3 and 4) one on top of another...
Regards,

Answer 1

This can easily be done with table display:
.table-display {
display: table;
width: 100%;
}
.cell-display {
display: table-cell;
}
.div1, .div2, .div3, .div4 {
padding: 40px;
}
.div1 {
background: #ABC;
}
.div2 {
background: #DEF;
}
.div3 {
background: #CAD;
}
.div4 {
background: #FAD;
}
<div class="div1">
<div class="table-display">
<div class="cell-display div2"></div>
<div class="cell-display">
<div class="div3"></div>
<div class="div4"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 2

Maybe set a width on .div1 and remove inline-block from .div1
.div1 {
width: 960px;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center;
}
.restofdivs {
width: 470px;
margin: 20px;
min-height: 1px;
}

Answer 3

The most common way to center a block element if you know it's width is to define the width and use "margin: 0 auto". This tells the browser to give a top and bottom margin of 0, and to automatically determine equal margins on the left and right.
Using floats, you can create the layout you described as follows:
http://jsfiddle.net/ynt4suee/
Markup:
<div>
<div id="one" class="border clearfix">one
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="two" class="border">two</div>
<div class="subcontainer">
<div id="three" class="border">three</div>
<div id="four" class="border">four</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
CSS:
div.border{
border: 1px solid red;
}
div#wrapper{
width: 400px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
div#two{
width: 250px;
float: left;
}
div.subcontainer{
float: right;
width: 130px;
}
.clearfix:after {
content: " "; /* Older browser do not support empty content */
visibility: hidden;
display: block;
height: 0;
clear: both;
}
Here's another approach, using inline-block elements for the inner divs instead:
http://jsfiddle.net/xojqq4v5/
Markup:
<div id="one" class="border">
div 1
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="two" class="border">div 2</div>
<div id="subcontainer">
<div id="three" class="border">div 3</div>
<div id="four" class="border">div 4</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
CSS:
div.border{
border: 1px solid red;
margin-bottom: 5px;
}
div#wrapper{
width: 450px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
div#two, div#subcontainer{
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
}
div#two{
width: 300px;
}
div#three, div#four{
width: 140px;
}
Still, so long as you know the total width of the inner divs, you can center the wrapper using "margin: 0 auto", which has the advantage of not centering text on all child elements unless otherwise specified.
The difference here is that to lay out the inner divs in columns, div 2 and the container div containing divs 3 and 4 are defined as inline-block elements.