how to expand my side bar the length of my content? - css

Question

my site : http://web.njit.edu/~dp257/boilerplate/website.html#
i want my side bar to go down to the top of the footer or the same length as my content. I so i do not want to use JQuery or anything like that. Im sure it has to be in the CSS should be an easy fixing but im blanking out.
<div id = "wrapper">
<header id="name" align="center">MY IS117 Website</header>
<div id="primary_links" align="center">
<ul>
<li>Menu 1</li>
<li>Menu 2</li>
<li>Menu 3</li>
<li>Menu 4</li>
<li>Menu 5</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="content">
<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>
<p>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque velit eros, lacinia non mauris at, facilisis iaculis sem. Aenean eu felis elit. Aenean nec sem ac lectus aliquet sagittis eget sit amet urna. Etiam in dignissim nulla. In non nibh pharetra, posuere mi venenatis, consequat ipsum. Quisque dapibus porttitor posuere. Maecenas porttitor nibh sit amet lacinia vehicula. Nullam sit amet urna gravida, gravida leo vel, ultrices ante. Sed accumsan nibh nec erat dapibus, ut ultrices nisi elementum. Praesent in enim at nunc consectetur cursus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Curabitur quis scelerisque ipsum. Quisque vulputate consectetur egestas. Etiam non tincidunt urna.
</p>
<p>
Aenean fringilla sed urna a ultrices. Aliquam non augue in libero venenatis sodales at ut eros. Nunc ac arcu a justo luctus ultricies. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Maecenas sed molestie leo, vel placerat massa. Nullam at eros ac nunc malesuada fermentum nec vel mi. Nulla convallis mattis facilisis. Vivamus urna quam, tincidunt id venenatis in, porttitor quis lectus. Donec eu vehicula quam, sit amet sollicitudin risus. Nullam nec dapibus tortor. Nam in consectetur urna. Aenean enim eros, ullamcorper vitae mauris at, sollicitudin blandit felis. Ut ac odio blandit, sodales tortor sed, aliquam est.
</p>
<p>
Praesent at sagittis augue. Sed libero ipsum, pharetra eget ante nec, laoreet tempor leo. Cras libero magna, mattis in ligula a, rutrum volutpat libero. Morbi tincidunt lectus eget vehicula eleifend. Nullam pulvinar sapien non porttitor pharetra. Fusce porttitor nunc sit amet iaculis rhoncus. Nullam et est vel enim commodo interdum ac vel odio. Duis pretium lorem ante, condimentum laoreet lectus aliquam at. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Praesent ornare dui vel erat hendrerit, commodo tempus eros vehicula. Morbi dapibus est tristique ligula consequat adipiscing. Nulla non massa nibh. Praesent justo quam, eleifend sed blandit eget, pharetra in augue.
</p>
<p>
Vestibulum tincidunt erat at justo adipiscing condimentum. Morbi ante eros, sagittis at augue a, feugiat malesuada quam. Mauris molestie leo a mi accumsan pretium. Vestibulum tempus mi et sagittis convallis. In ac purus porta nisi congue condimentum. Donec augue lectus, eleifend consectetur suscipit sit amet, volutpat sed enim. Quisque eget enim erat. Cras molestie nisi sed leo elementum, et eleifend est sollicitudin. Quisque sed elit at massa tincidunt vehicula sed non leo. Aenean condimentum, purus et consectetur auctor, nunc diam porttitor sapien, rutrum accumsan nisi lectus at ipsum. Duis blandit nulla felis, a dictum odio egestas pretium. Nullam feugiat justo mi, vel pretium mauris posuere vitae. Duis at adipiscing tortor. Morbi laoreet augue vel ullamcorper venenatis.
</p>
<p>
In porttitor orci nec turpis tempus, in faucibus mauris luctus. Aliquam egestas convallis sollicitudin. Sed congue, ante id porttitor tristique, odio purus molestie lectus, id egestas nisl magna vitae felis. Donec imperdiet lectus sem, vel varius sem aliquam vel. Morbi quis leo suscipit, vulputate nisi at, posuere velit. Duis lorem justo, pharetra id mi ut, egestas laoreet dui. Mauris ultricies libero sit amet ligula porttitor, eget sagittis neque ornare. Suspendisse tristique metus nec auctor volutpat.
</p>
</div>
<!-- content -->
<div id="sidebar">
<div id="secondary_links">
<ul>
<li>Menu 1</li>
<li>Menu 2</li>
<li>Menu 3</li>
<li>Menu 4</li>
<li>Menu 5</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div id="footer">Footer</div>
</div>
<!-- wrapper -->
CSS
#header {
background-color: cyan;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
padding: 20px;
margin: 30px;
border: 5px solid;
}
#name {
border: 1px solid;
padding-left: 31px;
padding-right: 31px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
#wrapper {
width: 898px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
#primary_links li {
display: inline;
}
#primary_links {
height: 75px;
line-height: 75px;
border: 1px solid;
}
#primary_links a {
color: black;
}
#secondary_links ul, #primary_links ul {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}
#secondary_links li {
list-style: none;
/* gets rid of bullets */;
}
#sidebar {
width: 338px;
float: left;
border: 1px solid;
}
#secondary_links {
/*width:340px; temporary
float:right; put in own div fiix prob*/;
}
#footer {
/*margin-left:508px;
margin-right:230px;*/
clear: both;
background-color: green;
}
#content {
width: 508px;
padding-left: 23px;
padding-right: 23px;
border: 1px solid;
float: left;
}

Answer 1

Do you want your sidebar to the right? With the same height as your content? If this is right, you can use a float: right; on your #sidebar. Put your content and your sidebar in a new div, give him a class like: .wrapper. And set a background image on the .wrapper. If the height change the background will change and also the background wil repeat.
.wrapper {
width: 100%;
background: url('yourimage') repeat;
/* float: left; */
overflow: hidden;
}
I hope you understand this. I can also give you a example, if you want.
EDIT: You can use float left, to give the parent div the height of the children. Or you can use overflow: hidden;.

Answer 2

Add a wrap div around #content and #sidebar. I called the div #content-sidebar-wrap.
Add display:table to #content-sidebar-wrap and add display:table-cell to #content and #sidebar.
#content-sidebar-wrap{
display:table;
height:100%;
}
#content {
width: 508px;
padding-left: 23px;
padding-right: 23px;
border: 1px solid;
float: left;
display:table-cell;
}
#sidebar {
width: 338px;
float: left;
border: 1px solid;
height:100%;
display:table-cell;
}
Check it out: http://jsfiddle.net/LHX9Z/

Answer 3

Use:
For #sidebar: clear: right;
For #footer: clear: both;
Afer that your footer go to bottom, and sidebar to right.

Answer 4

An easy way to get this working properly, is just add some huge padding-bottom to .sidebar, and then counter it with the same (but negative) margin-bottom. Just gotta make sure you set the overflow:hidden to the wrapping class. I'd recommend you move both the header and footer outside wrapper.
FIDDLE

Answer 5

just try this now
#wrapper {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #B3D4FC;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
width: 898px;
}
#primary_links {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFFFFF;
border: 1px solid;
height: 75px;
line-height: 75px;
}
#name {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFFFFF;
border: 1px solid;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
padding-left: 31px;
padding-right: 31px;
}
#sidebar {
background-color: #ADD8E6;
border: 1px solid;
float: right;
width: 290px;
}