Div fill height of parent div? - html

Question

I'm trying to get a div to fill the remaining height of a div. Here's my HTML and CSS:
CSS:
* {
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
}
#container {
margin: 85px auto 0px auto;
background: #444444;
min-height: 500px;
width: 900px;
}
#topbar {
width: 900px;
height: 85px;
background: #555555;
}
#leftbar {
width: 250px;
height: 100%;
background: #666666;
}
HTML:
<div id="container">
<div id="topbar">
</div>
<div id="leftbar">
</div>
</div>
I expected leftbar to fill the height between the bottom of topbar and the bottom of container, but it's scretching container so that leftbar is 100% of the page height.

Answer 1

You can stretch the leftbar with absolute positioning and setting the top/bottom values:
* {
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
}
#container {
position: relative;
margin: 85px auto 0px auto;
background: #444444;
min-height: 500px;
width: 900px;
}
#topbar {
width: 900px;
height: 85px;
background: #555555;
}
#leftbar {
position: absolute;
top: 85px;
bottom: 0;
width: 250px;
background: red;
}
Fiddle:
http://jsfiddle.net/robertp/CQ7pf/

Answer 2

Try adding this to container:
position: relative;
and then add this to leftbar:
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;

Answer 3

Set your left bar to position: relative;

Answer 4

So leftbar should be container's height minus topbar's height. Since container and topbar have hard-coded height values, it follows that leftbar will have to be hard-coded also. It's not the prettiest thing in the world but it's simpler than the alternative, JavaScript.
If container is 500px in height, subtract the height of topbar (85) and container's margin (85) to arrive at a height of 330px. Since container uses min-height, use min-height for leftbar also to allow it to stretch the container if need be. You should also change leftbar's position to relative to render the height of container correctly.
Bottom line:
#leftbar {
position: relative;
min-height: 330px;
}