I have a question on something weird that is rendering on the latest IE and Chrome browsers. I have a div that is supposed to span 100% of a parent. So clumsily, I gave it - width: 100%px; as a CSS property. Here is my entire item:
.loc_vendiv{
position: relative;
margin-top: 5px;
left: 0px;
width: 100%px;
height: 120px;
border: 1px solid #333;
background-color: #fff;
}
The weird thing - that worked perfectly. So much so, that I just noticed today that this was wrong. Not wanting an ugly style sheet, I removed the px from the end. And... the div was two pixels too wide. Any explanation as to why this is happening? Here is the parent div:
#loc_catlist{
position: absolute;
width: 612px;
height: 720px;
top: 50px;
left: 0px;
background-color: #eee;
overflow-y: auto;
overflow-x: hidden;
}
I'm mildly annoyed, as the bad code works, yet the correct code doesn't do what I want. I don't think I can leave it, though. I don't like little hiccups like this...
It's because of your border.
Try adding :
box-sizing: border-box;
to your .loc_vendiv class, it will take the border in account.
Browsers usually ignore invalid css rules like width: 100%px; which means that to get the style you had with the mistake. you only have to remove the width rule.
2px too wide is likely caused because you have a width of 100% in addition to a border of 1px (all around adds up to 2px width).
A fix can be found here from "Paul Irish" about
box-sizing
what happens is that when the width value is wrong (100%px;) this part of the CSS is simply ignored by the browser. If this part of the css was deleted, the result would be the same.
About the 2 extra pixels, this happens because of the border set to the div.loc_vendiv.
The width of div.loc_vendiv is equal to the width of div#loc_catlist and to this is added the border value (1px for the left border and 1px for the right border = 2px).
Remember that the border width is added to the size of the object while the padding creates an internal space.
We use the percentage trick on paddings to keep aspect ratio to a div when the user scales his window. Like this:
.div {
background: red;
width: 80%;
margin: 0 auto 10px;
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: border-box;
padding-bottom: 20%;
}
Now we would like to be able to set a maximum height to this div. Because the height of the div is determined by the padding on the div we would need the div to be border-boxed. So far so good. When trying to use a min-height on the div, this works. The max-height on this div however does not work for some reason.
.div {
max-height: 60px;
}
I created a fiddle to show you what i mean: http://jsfiddle.net/UxuEB/3/.
Tested this on Chrome, FF and IE. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong or why this doesn't work as expected?
I realize this answer comes incredibly late to the party but I was trying to solve this exact same thing today and this question is the first result in Google. I ended up solving it with the below code so hopefully that will help someone out in the future.
First, add an extra inner div:
<div class="control control-max-height">
<div class="control-max-height-inner">
Max-height
</div>
</div>
And set the padding on that while hiding the overflow on the outer div:
.control {
background: red;
width: 80%;
margin: 0 auto 10px;
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.control-max-height {
max-height: 120px;
overflow: hidden;
}
.control-max-height-inner {
padding-bottom: 20%;
}
This obviously assumes you're fine with hiding part of the inner element when it overflows. In my case that wasn't a problem because the inner element is just an empty link element to make the whole thing clickable and the outer element just has a centered background image and a border set.
See fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/UxuEB/7/
The property max-height works on the height of the element and you want to use it on the height and padding-bottom.
I think you are confused by the box-sizing property that it changes the element height to the overal height including the padding top and bottom (also me). But this is not the case as you will see in the jsFiddle example.
An example:
The element with content is 100px in height.
The max-height is set to 50px (element is now 50px in height).
Now we apply the padding-bottom of 100px (more then the height of the element). The padding of 100px is added to the total height of the element making it 150px.
JsFiddle example: clicky
Extending from Mike's answer, the same can be achieved with a single DOM element & a pseudo element, eg.
html:
<div class="le-div"></div>
css:
div.le-div {
max-height: 200px;
/* 👇 only necessary if applying any styles to the pseudo element
other than padding:
overflow: hidden;
*/
}
div.le-div::before {
content: '';
display: block;
padding-bottom: 60%;
}
Min-height property defines the height when height is solely dependent on padding only but max-height does not.
Not sure why but now in 2020, min and max css units does nice job as we need.
.classthatshoulddefineheight {
padding-bottom: min(20%, 60px);
}
So when 20% becomes greater than 60px then it will be limited to 60px (minimum of them).
The limitation to Mike's answer (and this Brad's answer - although Brad's technique can be incorporated to reduce the number of levels of containers) is that it requires overflow: hidden - which in my use-case (and in many others) a significant limitation.
I've reworked his example to work without overflow: hidden; using an additional level and absolute positioning.
http://jsfiddle.net/2ksh56cr/2/
The trick is to add another container inside the inner box, make it absolute positioned and then add the max-height to that container as well:
.inner-inner {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
max-height: 120px;
}
As long as your fine with having some additional DOM-elements, this should work in all scenarios for more or less all browsers.
Try display: flow-root; on the parent container.
I am trying to set the width of the .full_height_div element using pure css, based on its height. It has to be width-relative-to-height, and not height-relative-to-width. The reason for this is that the parent container (.set_rectangle_height) is already a div with height relative to the page width. Obviously, as the page is resized the divs on the page will resize, so i cannot set a fixed width in px for the .full_height_div child.
So .rectangle and .set_rectangle_height make up the parent container which has a width as a percentage of the page and a height relative to this width. See here for an explanation for this method.
But the problem is that then I want to place a div inside the parent with height: 100% and width relative to this height. The aim is then that I will be able to alter the browser window size and everything will keep its aspect ratio.
here is my failed attempt:
.rectangle
{
position: relative;
width: 30%;/*the outermost div is always a % of the page
width, even while resizing*/
display:inline-block;
background-color: green;
}
.set_rectangle_height
{
padding-bottom: 30%;/*this sets the height of the outermost div
to a ratio of 1:3*/
position: relative;
float: left;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
.full_height_div/*this is the div that i want to have a width relative
to its height*/
{
height: 100%;
width: 20px;/*i will delete this once .square_set_width is working*/
position: absolute;
background-color: red;
}
.square_set_width
{
display: inline-block;
padding-left: 100%; /*i want to use something like this line to set
the width of this div to be equal to .full_height_div's height - ie a 1:1 aspect
ratio, but padding-left does not work :( */
position: relative;
height: 100%;
background-color: blue;
}
<div class='rectangle'>
<div class='set_rectangle_height'>
<div class='full_height_div'>
<div class='square_set_width'></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
So, this is what the above incorrect markup looks like:
And this is what i want it to look like:
I know I could find the blue square percentage height in javascript, then set the width to be equal to this height, but it would be really handy if there is a pure css fix for what I am trying to do. I will be using this structure a lot and I don't really want to go writing code to resize all the divs on my page.
you have to use javascript for that. If I understood you, you want a perfect blue square. Use
var height = $('.square_set_width').height();
$('.square_set_width').css('width',height);
here is a jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/a8kxu/
Edit: instead of doing padding-bottom: 30% do height: 70% instead. Here is another fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/a8kxu/1/
Edit #2: Sorry, but you cant use css to do this. Its not powerful enough
If i understand you correctly
you can do
#divID {
width: 75%;
margin-left: auto; // this is used to center the container
margin-right: auto;// this as well
}
The problem is simple:
http://jsfiddle.net/boblauer/wfLGG/
In the left example, I have the whole thing scrolling, which works fine because I can set the scrolling div's height to 100%. In the right example, it doesn't work, because I don't know what my scrolling div's height should be, because it's sharing that space with another element. If I set it to 100%, it overflows from its container, causing the 2nd scrollbar that you see in the example.
I know I can use javascript to set the .scroll-container's height to (container height - height of the header), but is there a pure css solution to this problem? I hate having to use javascript for this, especially because when the window resizes, I have to recalculate the size of the scrolling div.
Edit: Sorry, I wasn't very clear. What I want is for the header to remain static at the top, while the list itself is scrollable.
I think this is maybe helpful
.scroll-container {
overflow: auto;
padding-top:20px;
}
#ex2 span{
position:absolute;
background:white;
}
jsFiddle
Set overflow: y-scroll; on #ex2 and it will behave as #ex1.
#ex1, #ex2 {
float: left;
height: 100%;
width: 45%;
border: 1px solid black;
overflow: auto;
}
#ex2 { overflow: y-scroll; }
Demo
With HTML/CSS, how can I make an element that has a width and/or height that is 100% of it's parent element and still has proper padding or margins?
By "proper" I mean that if my parent element is 200px tall and I specify height = 100% with padding = 5px I would expect that I should get a 190px high element with border = 5px on all sides, nicely centered in the parent element.
Now, I know that that's not how the standard box model specifies it should work (although I'd like to know why, exactly...), so the obvious answer doesn't work:
#myDiv {
width: 100%
height: 100%;
padding: 5px;
}
But it would seem to me that there must be SOME way of reliably producing this effect for a parent of arbitrary size. Does anyone know of a way of accomplishing this (seemingly simple) task?
Oh, and for the record I'm not terribly interested in IE compatibility so that should (hopefully) make things a bit easier.
EDIT: Since an example was asked for, here's the simplest one I can think of:
<html style="height: 100%">
<body style="height: 100%">
<div style="background-color: black; height: 100%; padding: 25px"></div>
</body>
</html>
The challenge is then to get the black box to show up with a 25 pixel padding on all edges without the page growing big enough to require scrollbars.
I learned how to do these sort of things reading "PRO HTML and CSS Design Patterns". The display:block is the default display value for the div, but I like to make it explicit. The container has to be the right type; position attribute is fixed, relative, or absolute.
.stretchedToMargin {
display: block;
position:absolute;
height:auto;
bottom:0;
top:0;
left:0;
right:0;
margin-top:20px;
margin-bottom:20px;
margin-right:80px;
margin-left:80px;
background-color: green;
}
<div class="stretchedToMargin">
Hello, world
</div>
Fiddle by Nooshu's comment
There is a new property in CSS3 that you can use to change the way the box model calculates width/height, it's called box-sizing.
By setting this property with the value "border-box" it makes whichever element you apply it to not stretch when you add a padding or border. If you define something with 100px width, and 10px padding, it will still be 100px wide.
box-sizing: border-box;
See here for browser support. It does not work for IE7 and lower, however, I believe that Dean Edward's IE7.js adds support for it. Enjoy :)
The solution is to NOT use height and width at all! Attach the inner box using top, left, right, bottom and then add margin.
.box {margin:8px; position:absolute; top:0; left:0; right:0; bottom:0}
<div class="box" style="background:black">
<div class="box" style="background:green">
<div class="box" style="background:lightblue">
This will show three nested boxes. Try resizing browser to see they remain nested properly.
</div>
</div>
</div>
The better way is with the calc() property. So, your case would look like:
#myDiv {
width: calc(100% - 10px);
height: calc(100% - 10px);
padding: 5px;
}
Simple, clean, no workarounds. Just make sure you don't forget the space between the values and the operator (eg (100%-5px) that will break the syntax. Enjoy!
According the w3c spec height refers to the height of the viewable area e.g. on a 1280x1024 pixel resolution monitor 100% height = 1024 pixels.
min-height refers to the total height of the page including content so on a page where the content is bigger than 1024px min-height:100% will stretch to include all of the content.
The other problem then is that padding and border are added to the height and width in most modern browsers except ie6(ie6 is actually quite logical but does not conform to the spec). This is called the box model. So if you specify
min-height: 100%;
padding: 5px;
It will actually give you 100% + 5px + 5px for the height. To get around this you need a wrapper container.
<style>
.FullHeight {
height: auto !important; /* ie 6 will ignore this */
height: 100%; /* ie 6 will use this instead of min-height */
min-height: 100%; /* ie 6 will ignore this */
}
.Padded {
padding: 5px;
}
</style>
<div class="FullHeight">
<div class="Padded">
Hello i am padded.
</div
</div>
1. Full height with padding
body {
margin: 0;
}
.container {
min-height: 100vh;
padding: 50px;
box-sizing: border-box;
background: silver;
}
<div class="container">Hello world.</div>
2. Full height with margin
body {
margin: 0;
}
.container {
min-height: calc(100vh - 100px);
margin: 50px;
background: silver;
}
<div class="container">Hello world.</div>
3. Full height with border
body {
margin: 0;
}
.container {
min-height: 100vh;
border: 50px solid pink;
box-sizing: border-box;
background: silver;
}
<div class="container">Hello world.</div>
This is one of the outright idiocies of CSS - I have yet to understand the reasoning (if someone knows, pls. explain).
100% means 100% of the container height - to which any margins, borders and padding are added. So it is effectively impossible to get a container which fills it's parent and which has a margin, border, or padding.
Note also, setting height is notoriously inconsistent between browsers, too.
Another thing I've learned since I posted this is that the percentage is relative the container's length, that is, it's width, making a percentage even more worthless for height.
Nowadays, the vh and vw viewport units are more useful, but still not especially useful for anything other than the top-level containers.
Another solution is to use display:table which has a different box model behaviour.
You can set a height and width to the parent and add padding without expanding it. The child has 100% height and width minus the paddings.
JSBIN
Another option would be to use box-sizing propperty. Only problem with both would be they dont work in IE7.
Another solution: You can use percentage units for margins as well as sizes. For example:
.fullWidthPlusMargin {
width: 98%;
margin: 1%;
}
The main issue here is that the margins will increase/decrease slightly with the size of the parent element. Presumably the functionality you would prefer is for the margins to stay constant and the child element to grow/shrink to fill changes in spacing. So, depending on how tight you need your display to be, that could be problematic. (I'd also go for a smaller margin, like 0.3%).
A solution with flexbox (working on IE11): (or view on jsfiddle)
<html>
<style>
html, body {
height: 100%; /* fix for IE11, not needed for chrome/ff */
margin: 0; /* CSS-reset for chrome */
}
</style>
<body style="display: flex;">
<div style="background-color: black; flex: 1; margin: 25px;"></div>
</body>
</html>
(The CSS-reset is not necessarily important for the actual problem.)
The important part is flex: 1 (In combination with display: flex at the parent). Funnily enough, the most plausible explanation I know for how the Flex property works comes from a react-native documentation, so I refer to it anyway:
(...) flex: 1, which tells a component to fill all available space, shared evenly amongst other components with the same parent
To add -webkit and -moz would be more appropriate
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: border-box;
Frank's example confused me a bit - it didn't work in my case because I didn't understand positioning well enough yet. It's important to note that the parent container element needs to have a non-static position (he mentioned this but I overlooked it, and it wasn't in his example).
Here's an example where the child - given padding and a border - uses absolute positioning to fill the parent 100%. The parent uses relative positioning in order to provide a point of reference for the child's position while remaining in the normal flow - the next element "more-content" is not affected:
#box {
position: relative;
height: 300px;
width: 600px;
}
#box p {
position: absolute;
border-style: dashed;
padding: 1em;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
}
<div id="box">
<p>100% height and width!</p>
</div>
<div id="more-content">
</div>
A useful link for quickly learning CSS positioning
This is the default behavior of display: block The fastest way that you can fix it in 2020 is to set display: 'flex' of parent element and padding e.g. 20px then all its children will have 100% height relative to its height.
Border around div, rather than page body margin
Another solution - I just wanted a simple border around the edge of my page, and I wanted 100% height when the content was smaller than that.
Border-box didn't work, and the fixed positioning seemed wrong for such a simple need.
I ended up adding a border to my container, instead of relying on the margin of the body of the page - it looks like this :
body, html {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
.container {
width: 100%;
min-height: 100%;
border: 8px solid #564333;
}
<style type="text/css">
.stretchedToMargin {
position:absolute;
width:100%;
height:100%;
}
</style>