I am trying to put an absolute div inside a relatively positioned div. But I don't want to define a height for the relative div.
The relative div has a background colour and when I don't define a height the absolute div goes 'outside' the relative div. I can't control how many lines the text will be so the height of the divs change
HTML
<div class="row top-footer">
<div class="top-footer-text text-center">
<div class="test">
<h1>title</h1>
<div class="footer-btn-wrap">
<div class="footer-btn">button</div>
<div class="footer-btn">button</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div><!-- /top-footer -->
CSS
.top-footer {
position: relative;
background-color: #686a6f;
width: 100%;
padding-top: 40px; margin: 0;
}
.test {
position: absolute;
top: 0px; margin: 0;
}
EDIT
I want .top-footer (position: relative) to contain .test (position: absolute) with space/padding/margin on the top and bottom of .test. the height of the div is unknown because the content may take up more than one line depending on screen size
Adding whitespace around the child div is fairly trivial. However preventing the parent div from collapsing is more tricky and is the thing you need to tackle first. The problem you are having is that with the parent relatively positioned and the child absolutely positioned, the only element on the entire page that actually "knows" where the child is is the parent... and even then it's a fairly bad parent because it won't even make enough space for the child! The rest of the DOM will behave as if the element isn't even there - other non-positioned elements will float over or above it - even text will be obscured by your child div. Assuming you want to put other content in the parent div using absolute positioning in this way only means you're going to have to use absolute positioning all around the place... which can get a bit heavy on the brain debugging layout problems later on.
The only possible solutions I can think of offhand are:
Use javaascript to sniff out the height of the child div and apply that to the parent. A fairly simple job if you use a library like jQuery but that requires extra downloaded files and makes your site unnecessarily bulky if this is the only task you're using it for. THis also wouldn't solve the problem of the child div obscuring other elements on the page.
Rework your CSS (and it might take a lot of reworking depending on how far you've got and the complexity of the styling) to use display:inline-block on the child... this will stop the parent from collapsing but might give you additional layout issues.
Rework your CSS (ditto) to float:left the child div. You would then need to use a CSS "clear hack" in order to prevent the parent divv from collapsing, although this is a tiny piece of CSS you can cut and paste from elsewhere... an easy job.
If you're determined to use absolute positioning like this my preferred solution would be to use jQuery (option 1) because most of my work tends to use a degree of it anyway... it's a tool I would have handy and the code to perform this task would be quite trivial.
EDIT - Here's a little fiddle to get you started. https://jsfiddle.net/fo8mq1vf/
This is how the output of your code looks like: https://jsfiddle.net/s3zLa54t/2/. The parent div (.top-footer) does contain the .test div. What browser are you using to view the output?
As for the padding, I guess you don't see any effect of changing padding-top. Try removing the top: 0px property in the .test div.
If this is not what you were looking for, do clarify the question here.
The answer to your question is simply remove
position:absolute from your absolute div (.test)
position:relative from your relative div (.top-footer)
height:300px from your relative div (.top-footer)
This is the tested version of https://jsfiddle.net/s3zLa54t/3/ with multiple number of divs under your main div. You can check that it is not going beyond the grey background.
.top-footer {
position: absolute;
background-color: #686a6f;
width: 100%;
padding:0px;
margin: 0;
}
.test h1{
padding-left:20px;
position: relative;
top: 5px; margin: 0;
float:left;
color:#FFF;
}
.footer-btn,.footer-btn-wrap
{
padding-left:200px;
color:#FFF;
}
.footer-btn a{
padding:5px 10px;
float:left;
color:#ffffff;
text-transform:capitalize;
text-decoration:none;
}
Heys guys. I've made a simple sample of a problem that has had me stumped for a long time - the code below has no purpose at all, it just shows the problem in a more legible way.
HTML:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="teste.css">
</head>
<body>
<div id="bar"></div>
<span>
Palavra
</span>
</body>
</html>
CSS:
#bar {
position: relative;
width: 100%;
height: 7%;
background-color: #5959AB;
color: white;
font-family: "Arial";
font-size: 150%;
font-weight: bold;
}
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
The result is:
So, I tried to make "Palavra" go up by adding a padding-bottom to it:
span {
padding-bottom: 2000px;
}
The result is:
"Palavra" just stays at the same precise position but a vertical scrolling bar appeared. It seems that "Palavra" is pushing down it's bottom part because it just can't go up from where it is.
This problem is appearing for me in so many ways that my mind is already blowing - can someone please help?
You need to give your span display: block
Then use a negative margin-top value
Example
There are 2 good ways to position the span.
You can make it display:block, and use a negative top margin as Lloyd Banks describes. The span needs to change from the default inline element to a block element because the top margin does not work with inline elements, but it does work with block elements.
From W3C "Margin properties specify the width of the margin area of a box. ... These properties apply to all elements, but vertical margins will not have any effect on non-replaced inline elements."
With this technique, you'll need a z-index on the div and span, so the span will be on top of the div, and not slide underneath it. MDN z-index article
JSFiddle Example
#bar {
position:relative;
width:100%;
height:25px;
background-color:#5959AB;
color:white;
font-family:"Arial";
font-size:150%;
font-weight:bold;
z-index:1;
}
span{
position:relative;
display:block;
margin-top:-25px;
z-index:2;
}
The second way is to absolutely position the span so it will be pulled out of the document flow, and placed at the top of its container.
JSFiddle Example
span{
position:absolute;
top:0px;
}
Adding padding to the bottom of the span will increase the size/length of the span by adding space to the bottom only. It will not push the span up from its original location, but it will push elements below it further down the page (because the span is now larger).
When you added 2000px bottom padding to the span, it was over 2000px tall, and was taller than your browser window, thus causing the scrollbar. Adding a background color to your element is a good way to see how padding and sizing work.
Here's a good detailed article from W3C on the box model including margins and padding http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/box.html#box-margin-area
And here is an easy article with a "Try it yourself" example: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_boxmodel.asp
You should rather write 'Palavra' in the div itself.
<div id="bar">
<span>
Palavra
</span>
</div>
Once you close the tag the will start from the very next line.
Moreover, If you want to take the content upward you have to work with the padding-top not the bottom one ! But, this will not help you taking your content into the as starts after the .
By adding padding-bottom you are increasing the size of the CSS box as per the Box model which is worthless here!
I will try to explain my situation the best that I can.
I have a site where it displays a list of DIV blocks with info inside. 3 DIV blocks are created using width:33%
Inside that div block I want another hidden div block that is exactly the same as the previous div block.
So I have something like this....
<div class="columnParent">
<div class="columnChild">
"Various stuff here that overlaps parent DIV"
</div>
"Various text that initially appears, but disappears after clicking a button"
</div>
Here is the CSS...
.columnParent { width:31%; float: left; margin-right:15px; margin-bottom:4%; }
.columnChild { width:31%; float: left; margin-right:15px; margin-bottom:4%; visibility:hidden; position: absolute;
background: #FFF;}
Now what happens when the child DIV is visible, it ends up being larger than the parent. This is because the width:31% is taking 31% of the entire HTML page, while the parent div is taking 31% of its parent div(not listed here).
Is there a way to get the child DIV to take the same width as its parent?
I want the Child div to be an exact replica of its parent div. I will be changing the text inside, but the actual div should be the same size and be in the exact same position.
Purpose: I have a button that displays the child div to make the parent disappear and display a new child div that has different information. Inside the child div there will be a back button to make that div disappear again (using JS).
Any help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!
put the child element width: 100%; , then it will take the exact width of parent element. After that, you can include jQuery to fadeIn/fadeOut the child element and manipulate it as you wish in javascript codes.
You can try by giving width 100% and position relative to columnChild, like below.
.columnChild {
width:100%;
float: left;
margin-right: 15px;
margin-bottom: 4%;
visibility: hidden;
position: relative;
background: #FFF;
}
Note: Position relative will help to adjust the position relative to the parent position and width 100% will help to make the same width as the parent div.
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;
}
Suppose I have this HTML structure:
<div class="a">
<div class="floated-left">...</div>
<div class="floated-left">...</div>
</div>
I have noticed that if I don't set overflow:hidden to .a, then the <div class="a"> does not occupy any vertical size. For example, if I set its background to red, it is not visible at all. Inspecting it with FireBug shows that it's there but of almost no vertical size.
To fix this, I found that I have to set overflow:hidden to .a. Then the first <div> goes over all its content.
Here is a real example:
<html>
<head>
<style>
.a { background-color: red; }
.b { background-color: red; overflow: hidden }
.floated-left { float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; background-color: blue; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>div with class a, that doesn't overflow:hidden:</p>
<div class="a">
<div class="floated-left">Hi,</div>
<div class="floated-left">Mom!</div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<p>div with class b, that does overflow:hidden:</p>
<div class="b">
<div class="floated-left">Hi,</div>
<div class="floated-left">Dad!</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Notice how Hi, Mom! does not get red background (no overflow:hidden), while Hi, Dad! does get red background (has overflow:hidden).
Can anyone explain this behaviour?
Here is screenshot of the example:
Thanks, Boda Cydo.
When you float elements they are taken out of the document flow. Among other things, this means that they have no impact on the dimensions of the parent element (although its width will determine where the floats are positioned on the horizontal axis). They do however impact positioning of siblings within the container depending on whether those sibling are inline or block level elements and whether they have width or not.
In order to make the height of the floats impact the height of the container you must have an element after them that clears them. However, what you are seeing here is actually a part of the CSS standard that you can use to clear floats without additional, non-semantic markup. The only issue is this behavior can vary slightly in older browsers and their css implementations. This effect is present with both overflow auto and overflow hidden but does not present with overflow visible. In IE < 6 you must have a width set on the containing element for it to work.
Hi, Mom does not get any background because the background comes from the a div, which is height 0 (or near 0). The inner divs are actually overflowing its bounds (which is what floats do by default).
The thing to remember with floats is that they don't have inherent height (when it comes to layout and determining the parent's height). Inline content simply flows around them. So without overflow: hidden the parent div has no height. No height means no background. The floats are still rendered but they go beyond the bounds of the parent div ie the content in the floats is outside the parent div.
Floated elements don't occupy any vertical space for clearing, there are a few ways to fix this, something like:
<div class="a">
<div class="floated-left">Hi,</div>
<div class="floated-left">Mom!</div>
<br style="clear: left;" />
</div>
Would clear after, and make the outer div have a vertical height. Set a border: solid 1px red; on .a to see this in action.
Alternative CSS only solution:
.a:after {
content: ".";
display: block;
height: 0;
clear: both;
visibility: hidden;
}
Per the spec for CSS basic box model:
Margins of a floated box do not
collapse with any other margins.
Margins of a box with ‘overflow’ other
than ‘visible’ do not collapse with
its children's margins.
By providing it the "overflow" property explicitly you have allowed the children to fit into this model, thus the b div no longer has bounds attached to its children. If you apply visible or inherit (which the parent of b is visible by default), the bounds return and the children divs define the margins.
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-box/ (RE: Example X)