CSS - Fill remaining height (dynamic content) - css

Question

<div id="header">
<div>My</div>
<div>Header</div>
</div>
<div id="content"></div>
In the above markup, how can I get the content to fill the rest of the screen (no-scrolling)?
I know how to do this with absolute positions if the header was of a fixed height, but my header's height is dynamically set by its contents (so the site is responsive on mobile devices.)
Btw: I'm looking for a CSS only solution, because I think JavaScript is not made for this kind of task.
Thanks a lot,

Answer 1

The simpliest way is to draw the background in body and keep #content translucide. DEMO 1.
This way, you do not mind #header nor #content heights.
If you do not mind about IE7 and less, then display:table/table-row/table-cell taken from defaut display of HTML table elements can be what you need , in the case header has unknown height. DEMO 2
Your structure will need a bit of update in order to act as wished and to avoid gaps in layout render from header part to the content part.
If you reset display to be used as table properties, it will do so and can draw cols and rows.
Since it is only the row properties that will be usefull, Structure must be rendering as one single col and multiple rows.
Basic structure needs to turn this way :
<div id="header" class="row">
<div class="single">
<div>My</div>
<div>Header than can grow</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="content" class="row">
<div class="single">
<p>My Content that will fill remaining space untill page has to scroll</p>
</div>
</div>
And basic CSS turns this way :
html, body {
height:100%;
width:100%;
margin:0;
}
body {
display:table;/* it will allow to grow over initial width specified */
/* table-layout:fixed; only if you want to control width within value specified*/
background:#edc;
}
.row {
display:table-row;/* we want these elements to stack on top of each other, not to become cells aside each other */
}
.single {
display:table-cell;/* this 'buffer' element is used to avoid layout to turn into multiple cols */
}
#content {
height:100%;/* since layout is the one taken from table properties, it means fill all space avalaible that #header doesn't use */
background:#cde;
}
In the case, *#header has a known*** height, it can be set in fixed or absolute position.
#content can be 100% height DEMO 3, better: min-height:100%; DEMO 4
display:flex could be useful too but for real young browser only :).
Example with display:flex;
html {
height:100%;
}
body {
margin:0;
min-height:100%;
background:#edc;
display:flex;
flex-direction:column;
}
#header {
/* nothing needed here */
}
#content {
flex:1;/* since it is the only one getting a flex attitude, it will fill up all space avalaible*/
background:yellow;
}