I am trying to create a variable height div. It seems if the div's inside the variable height div are set to float:left The variable height div gets a height of 0. If I set the variable height div float:left the div grows with the content inside it but now the variable height div is sent to the left of the screen instead of the center. How do I keep the main div in the center but also have it grow with it's child div's?
<div id="VariableHeightDiv">
<div class="child floatLeft"></div>
<div class="child floatLeft"></div>
<div class="child floatLeft"></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
and in your css
.clear{clear:both;}
You need to clear the floats, otherwise the browser is unable to understand and calculate correctly the height of the container div. That is why in the end we add an empty div with clear:both.
Adding overflow: auto; to your main div will keep it centered, and will also force it to wrap around the elements inside of it. Two great articles on the float property and the overflow property can be found here: http://css-tricks.com/all-about-floats/ / http://css-tricks.com/the-css-overflow-property/
I wouldn't recommend using the <div style="clear: both;"> technique, because it's unnecessary extra markup, and doesn't add anything to the presentation.
Floated divs are somewhat removed from the document's "flow". You can force a container div to completely surround its contents, even if they're floated, by using a clearing element afterwards:
<div>
<div style="float: left">blah blah</div>
<br style="clear: both" />
</div>
There's better methods detailed here.
For the main div, include these CSS rules:
margin: 0 auto;
overflow: auto;
Also make sure that you have a min-height and width property set for the main div.
Edit: I've included the overflow property as well.
add overflow:hidden or overflow:scroll or overflow:auto for the parent div.
More info http://www.quirksmode.org/css/clearing.html
example: http://jsfiddle.net/MbgH4/1
Related
I noticed this strange behavior years ago back when I was first learning HTML, and still don't understand it.
Both jsfiddles are based on the following HTML:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
Child content
</div>
</div>
In the first jsfiddle, I'm adding a margin-top to the child element, yet the entire parent element shifts downward: http://jsfiddle.net/flyingL123/uUgVz/
In the next jsfiddle, the only thing I'm changing is adding a border to the parent element, and now the parent element no longer shifts down the page: http://jsfiddle.net/flyingL123/uUgVz/1/
Why don't both jsfiddles behave the same? Why is the parent element effected by the margin-top on the child element in the case when the parent element does not have a border?
It is because the childis not empty (height!==0)
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
Child content
</div>
</div>
is the same as
<div class="parent">
<div></div>
<div class="child">
Child content
</div>
</div>
empty element will be used as wrapper
and adding border to the parent is like saying hey now we want to see something which is the same as just adding a letter:
<div class="parent">
m
<div class="child">
Child content
</div>
</div>
-Demo-
Note that you are applying the style on the parent element and not the child, that means the first and all next notempty childif they dont have a style set will adopt the parent style
It has to do with how block elements are rendered. By default, divs don't hide their contents, it means that anything inside a div that results being larger than its parent would stick out of it, like the margin of your child element, however you can use the overflow: hidden attribute so that the content is limited only to the size of the container, and thus, making your margin to push from the inside of your div, since it can't stick out of it:
See the updated fiddle:
CSS:
.parent{
width:300px;
background-color:#666;
color:white;
overflow: hidden;
}
.child{
margin-top:50px;
}
But in case you still want the children to stick out of the parent but to be pushed down, you can set the container's padding value instead of the child's margin value, see this other fiddle:
CSS:
.parent{
width:300px;
background-color:#666;
color:white;
padding-top: 50px;
}
.child{
/* margin-top:50px; */
}
The effect you described is caused by Margin Collapsing
Go through this Stackoverflow to learn how to remove the margin collapsing.
<div id='container' >
<div id='content' > </div>
<div id='rightPane' > </div>
</div>
In the structure above content and rightPane are childs of container div. They contain the content and they expand in height with the growing content but the container div does'nt expand with it. I want to know the reason for it. Also i want to know when i apply overflow:hidden to container it starts expanding with the content in child divs. What happens when we apply overflow:hidden to the container parent div.
Hope this will be helpfull for you..
http://www.quirksmode.org/css/overflow.html
HI, can someone please help me with this. I have:
<html>
<body>
<div style="width=100%">
<div style="float:left; background-color:Red; height:100px">Red</div>
<div style="background-color:Green;">Green</div>
<div style="background-color:Yellow;">Yellow</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Which gives me exactly what I want, a Red div on the left with a Green div beside it taking up the rest of the width with a Yellow div beside the Red but below the Green div.
However the parent div actually has to also float left ie.
<html>
<body>
<div style="width=100%; float:left">
<div style="float:left; background-color:Red; height:100px">Red</div>
<div style="background-color:Green;">Green</div>
<div style="background-color:Yellow;">Yellow</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
This breaks it. Is there a way to get it working again with the parent div float left?
if you float the parent div, in order to keep them all in the parent container, you must also float them all. Those inside without float will fall out.
Edit: Note though that once you float them, width:100% means nothing anymore since the element don't know what to align 100% width with. Might have to give it some fixed width, or use JQuery to get width from document.
http://jsfiddle.net/robx/cpFUV/
It breaks it because a div is normally set to have a width of 100% it's parent container. Setting float:left makes the width set to the content's width. Set a width on your parent container and it should fix it.
You wrote width=100% instead of width:100% - fixed example:
<html>
<body>
<div style="float:left;width:100%;">
<div style="float:left; background-color:Red; height:100px;">Red</div>
<div style="background-color:Green;">Green</div>
<div style="background-color:Yellow;">Yellow</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
The reason it worked originally, is that there is an implicit width of 100% on block elements, but you made your div an inline element (of sorts) by adding the float (such that the width of the div reverted back to the content's width, just as your Red div works).
Your width=100% was always ignored, so by putting the width:100% as it should be, you are specifying a width for the element and all is well.
Example: http://jsfiddle.net/hwb4w/
<div style="float:left; width:50%;">
div 1
<div style="position:absolute; width:105%">nested element</div>
</div>
<div style="float:left; width:50%;">
div 2
</div
If an element exceeds the width of its floated parent element, the next element is pushed down unless I apply overflow:hidden on both floated elements, which defeats the purpose because I DO NOT want to hide the overflowing content. Is there any fix for it?
You have to make sure the content inside is not wider than the divs to stop the elements being pushed down in this scenario.
You could perhaps put margin-right: -5% on the positioned div to make it's width narrower in the document flow, but it should still display at 105% wide once rendered.
Set it to 100%, not 105% - otherwise, it is simply doing what you told it to do.
<div style="background-color:black" onmouseover="this.bgColor='white'">
<div style="float:left">hello</div>
<div style="float:right">world</div>
</div>
Why does the background color not show as black? I cannot set the width and float, is it possible without them?
Since the outer div only contains floated divs, it renders with 0 height. Either give it a height or set its overflow to hidden.
Change it to:
<div style="background-color:black; overflow:hidden;" onmouseover="this.bgColor='white'">
<div style="float:left">hello</div>
<div style="float:right">world</div>
</div>
Basically the outer div only contains floats. Floats are removed from the normal flow. As such the outer div really contains nothing and thus has no height. It really is black but you just can't see it.
The overflow:hidden property basically makes the outer div enclose the floats. The other way to do this is:
<div style="background-color:black" onmouseover="this.bgColor='white'">
<div style="float:left">hello</div>
<div style="float:right">world</div>
<div style="clear:both></div>
</div>
Oh and just for completeness, you should really prefer classes to direct CSS styles.
Floats don't have a height so the containing div has a height of zero.
<div style="background-color:black; overflow:hidden;zoom:1" onmouseover="this.bgColor='white'">
<div style="float:left">hello</div>
<div style="float:right">world</div>
</div>
overflow:hidden clears the float for most browsers.
zoom:1 clears the float for IE.
This being a very old question but worth adding that I have just had a similar issue where a background colour on a footer element in my case didn't show. I added a position: relative which worked.