Outer Div will not stretch to fit inner div (using clear) - css

I've been reading about how elements with the float attribute do not have their height accounted for. Therefore, I should use clear:both right before the end of the parent div so that it will stretch over the entire inner div.
You can see on This Page that the div with the id full-height-template-container is not stretching over its inner content, and therefore the footer (copyright text on the bottom right) is coming up too high on the page.
The layout looks like this:
<div id="full-height-template-containter">
<div id="content-container">
<div id="full-width" style="float:left;">
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
</div>
What else can I try in order to make the outer div stretch over its children?
Thanks in advance!

That's a common problem. To solve it, the clearfix hack in its many variants was invented.

I was confronting the same issue until I inserted this version of "Clearfix" at the top of the container that needs to be stretched as such:
CSS:
.clearfix:after {content: "."; display: block; height: 0; clear: both; visibility:hidden;}
.clearfix {display: inline-block;}
/* Hides from IE-mac \*/
* html .clearfix {height: 1%;}
.clearfix {display: block;}
/* End hide from IE-mac */
HTML:
<div class="clearfix"> </div>
<span class="doc">
John Nixon
Henry Wright
</span>

In #full-height-template-container you are using height: 100% which means the div takes 100% height of the parent.
If we track back in your CSS each parent element is assigned height: 100%, including the html and body elements, which means that the height is taken from the window - so as a result the div will never exceed the size of the window (but content will still overflow).
So it is not the floats that are causing the problem, it is the height you are explicitly assigning to each div.

i put your sample on fiddle and gave it some css to show the divs:
http://jsfiddle.net/WRzsE/
You can clearly see that it works perfectly as you describe you would expect it to. You are doing something else wrong i suspect...
Perhaps you are using a position: absolute somewhere, wich would cause the elemnt to be lifted out of its parent, and would make the parent not stretch (just thinking out loud here...)
edit:
I just took a look at the actual page (overlooked the link). Your div's are stretching just fine. The problem is with the positioning of your footer, wich is set to absolute. I suspect you are trying to achieve a sticky footer, have a look at this, works like a charm. I use it all the time: http://ryanfait.com/sticky-footer/

Related

How to resize the width of div left to another which has float:left;?

I still have problem to well understand how the float property works in CSS. I do apologize because I know this is css basics but I really want to understand that and get a good explanation. I've created an example to show you.
Here is my page :
I just want to resize the second div at the right. When I look at it in the Chrome Developer Tools, I see that this div begins at the top left of the window and not after the red square. I'd like it to begins just after the red square to change the width properly without calculating the size of the square and doing something like
width = square size + width i want
Do you know how this it happens and how to properly resize the width of the second div ?
EDIT: the solution consists in add the float property to the second div too. The explanation is the following : floated elements are removed from the flow, so they don't stack with the non-floated elements.
You need to set float for another div too.
We generally do like below:
html
<div class="float-left">
<p>floated left</p>
</div>
<div class="float-left"><!--- to float next to previous div--->
<p>floated left</p>
</div>
css
.float-left{
float: left;
}
As per your comment:
We do clear the float values because the container contents would never been collapsed.
You need to float the second div.
Heres an example.
<div class="parent-div">
<div class="left">
</div>
<div class="left">
<p>This is the description of the image</p>
</div>
</div>
You need to set
p { display:inline; }
or
div { display:inline; }
since paragraphs and divs are block elements.
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/visuren.html#block-boxes
the reason is that floated elements are removed from the flow, so they don't stack with the non-floated elements. - therefore they don't "take up space" like before. This is why your text div starts at the top left of its container.
from MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/float
The float CSS property specifies that an element should be taken from the normal flow and placed along the left or right side of its container, where text and inline elements will wrap around it. A floating element is one where the computed value of float is not none.
You have to set float for both DIVs
Here is the updated code:
HTML:
<div id="main_container">
<div class="left"></div>
<div class="right">
<p>This is the description of the image <i>Random text</i>
</p>
</div>
<!--Comment below <DIV> to see the result-->
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
CSS
#main_container {
border:5px solid #000;
}
.left, .right {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: red;
float:left;
}
.right {
background: blue;
width: calc(100% - 100px);
}
.clear {
clear:both;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
Also, just to add one more important fact related to "float" is, make sure you add "clear:both" property after "float".
Why?? Because, a common problem with float-based layouts is that the floats' container doesn't want to stretch up to accomodate the floats. If you want to add, say, a border around all floats (ie. a border around the container) you'll have to command the browsers somehow to stretch up the container all the way.
Here is the Fiddle for the same: http://jsfiddle.net/1867ud9p/7/
Hope this will help!

Expand parent div height to childs

I have a problem with footer positioning. It doesn't go to the bottom/last.
So, I have a container div which has 3 divs - float:right , float:left and the center one (which has position:absolute) that comes between the two floated divs.
The center one must have fixed width and height because it's an image.
In that center div I have another div with a lot of content.
The problem is, because the center div has fixed width and height, it doesn't take the childs div height.
So my problem is how to put the footer that it comes last (after the container)?
Note - with JQuery I put the width of the floated divs because they take 100%-980px width.
This is how it looks like.
I tried putting to the center div overflow:auto,overflow:overlay,margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;.
After reading your question again an again i come to conclusion and create the below fiddle using your code and embed a sample image for you desired size.
Please let me know if i am wrong while understanding your question. So i can work around according your needs.
fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/ah3nr/6
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/ah3nr/6/embedded/result/
My approach:
I have remove the position:absolute from center div and added new div for image and relate them both using css layer techniques.
Updated css:
.sectionDownContainer {
width: 980px;
/*height:270px;*/
border:1px solid red;
/*position: absolute;*/
position:relative;
top: -32px;
z-index: 1;
}
/*.sectionDownMenu {
margin-left: 50px;
margin-top: 1px;
display: block;
}
*/
#image_container {
position:relative;
width:980px;
height: 270px;
margin-top:-2px;
z-index:2;
}
.sectionDownContent {
width: 640px;
margin-top: -190px;
margin-left: 50px;
position: relative;
z-index:5;
color:#000;
font-weight:bold;
}
Screenshot:
Try this for the parent.
overflow:auto;
Also refer to this stack overflow post: Expanding a parent <div> to the height of its children
You need to set this property of the center-div: height:auto (you could also add a minimum height: min-height:400)
About your second question with the footer, this is much more complicated. You must do this:
<div id="content">
<div id="content_left">
</div>
<div id="content_center">
</div>
<div id="content_right">
</div>
<div id="footer">
</div>
</div>
I'll give you now the full CSS (because it's not so easy):
.content {position:relative; overflow:hidden;} //hidden overflow just a hack for common issues...
.content_left {height:auto; float:left} //set height to auto (very important)
.content_center {height:300; float:left} //a fixed height also works!
.content_right {height:auto; float:right}
.content_footer {width:100%; height:auto; float:right} //for tests you can also set a fixed height
This solution is also according to other threads on Stackoverflow: Align DIV's to bottom or baseline, How to align content of a div to the bottom?
But, if you experience problems with that, you may do this (my preferred solution):
<div id="content">
<div id="content_left">
</div>
<div id="content_center">
</div>
<div id="content_right">
</div>
</div>
<div id="footer">
</div>
And its CSS:
.content {position:relative; overflow:hidden;} //hidden overflow is just a hack
.content_left {height:auto; float:left} //set height to auto (very important)
.content_center {height:300; float:left} //a fixed height also works!
.content_right {height:auto; float:right}
.content_footer {width:100%; height:xxx; float:left} //you can use any height...
Note that all above solutions works only if you set all the "contents" to float, it doesn't work with absolute values! I found this here: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_a_parent_DIV_wrap_around_child_DIVs_which_are_floating_left_or_right
This is due to an issue with divs: It's not possible to "tell" a parent div the size! So childs like "content_center" or "content_right" won't tell the "content" how long they are and how long "content" must be. So it's impossible to tell the footer where to align, if you use absolute values for the childs.
So your second question, although it looks trivial, is a very important question, and not easy to solve.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I tried to find a solution with absolute now. The problem is, that absolute and fixed are taken out of the regular (text)flow, so their size can't influence the size/positioning of any other element anymore. But we also have to understand that an absolute element still controls all its childs, so we should rather set the childs as relative than the parent (here: "content")! So I finally found the solution, and it's quite weird, because it's almost the opposite thing I suggested above, but that solution was influenced by the posting of others, while following solution is "my own" one (I added a header for demonstration purpose):
<div id="header">
</div>
<div id="content">
<div id="content_left">
</div>
<div id="content_center">
</div>
<div id="content_right">
</div>
<div id="footer">
</div>
</div>
The CSS (the "header" clearly shows, that "content" inherites all positioning to its childs like "content_left", "content_right", aso.):
.header {position:absolute; left:0; top:0; height:100; width:100%}
.content {position:absolute; left:0; top:100; height:auto; min-width:700} //min-width is only voluntary, but quite useful
.content_left {position:relative; left:0; top:0; width:200; height:auto;} //height:auto is important to adapt the height from containing text!
.content_center {position:relative; left:200; top:0; right:200; width:auto; height:auto;} //in the middle element, also auto-width is important!
.content_right {position:fixed; right:0; top:0; width:200; height:1000;} //we set a fixed position, but that won't influence the footer anymore!
.content_footer {margin:0 0 60 0; position:relative; left:0; bottom:-60; width:100%; height:150;} //a fixed height is also okey...but relative position is needed!
//you still need to add margin:0; border:0; padding:0 or similar values for some elements to get a good layout
The important point here is, that you can decide which child element will be the longest one, and set this element's position:relative, while the other may have absolute or fixed. But if you don't know which element will be the longest, all child's positions need to be set as relative. Anyway, I suggest to set all childs to relative (beside fixed if needed), because their parent "content" will set their absolute height-position already correctly, so there's no need for any absolute at all.
I'm repeating myself: Above I wrote it's not possible to tell a parent div the size...actually it's possible, but not if the values absolute and fixed are used. Only if you use the browser standart value (static) or relative, the parent div will be informed about the size of its childs, an therefore the footer is set correctly at the bottom of the page.
Well, my solution works everywhere...even in IE (tested 6.0 and 8.0!) due to the hack margin:0 0 60 0 where the value 60 should be the positive value of bottom:-60. Now we finally got the non-floating crossbrower-solution. ;)
The problem you're experiencing is that certain CSS properties cause elements to be "removed from the flow" of the document (see the W3C Visual formatting model). Parent elements naturally grow to fit the height of children elements, however, floated and absolutely positioned elements are removed from the document flow. As mentioned in a few comments, setting overflow: auto; or overflow: hidden; on the parent element re-establishes a bounding box around floated elements. This means you can float elements within the parent container, then set overflow: hidden; on the parent element, and the parent element will contain the floats. However, this doesn't work for absolutely positioned elements: the absolutely positioned box is "removed from the normal flow entirely (it has no impact on later siblings)". The only exception is that the entire document will try and grow to display any positioned elements (give an element position: absolute; top: 3000em; and the page scrollbar will grow to allow you to scroll to that element). I don't know of any way to trigger this for elements other than the document.
Back to your intended effect… If you don't need IE7 support, you can use display: table; table-layout: fixed; to achieve a centered column with a fixed width and two columns of variable width on either side.
jsFiddle Demo
In the near future, this will also be possible using the CSS "flexbox" properties. Flexbox will allow for some nifty new features, including horizontal and vertical centering, changing the order of rendered elements, and setting "flex" values for how much of the remaining variable width an element should take. However, the standard is currently going through a period of flux, and the old standard (enjoying moderate support) is being replaced by a new standard (with little to no support). See "Old" Flexbox and "New" Flexbox and the accompanying demo. Considering the glacially slow progress of web standards implementation, I don't expect to see this in use for a few years unless a truly masterful polyfill is produced.

vertical align headache

Im having trouble vertical aligning 2 divs inside a 100% height div. I googled but failed solving.
pseudocode:
<div container, fixed height>
<img, dynamic height/>
<div inner, 100% height>
<div><img/></div>
<div><img/></div>
</div>
</div>
The two divs in the inner div, i want them to be in the vertical center of the inner div, but i cant find a way. its not possible to know the height of the inner div, its just set to 100% because of the random height of the image above it. The divs inside the inner div will also have dynamic heights.
2 hours of fiddling around gave no results, so im coming here.
The page where you can see it in action: http://pyntmeg.no/?iframe
You can give the parent DIV.container a position :relative property since it has a fixed height.
The inner div can then have a position:absolute and you set its height to 100% or maybe a little lower. you can use the top property to move it around.
Try:
.item {
position: relative;
top: 10%;
}
You may need to adjust top: 10%;
As long as the parent/grandparent divs have the width to work with it you can apply 'float: left' to the grandchild divs style.
vertical-align is meant for table elements, not regular divs, etc. In order to get vertical-align middle to work, the element needs to be set to display:table-cell and it's parent needs to be set to display:table-row
Be careful with that, though, because it really does change the way the element interacts with it's sibling elements, and it could definitely change how your page is laid out.
The best use of this would be something like this:
<div class="table-row">
<div class="td">lorem ipsum</div>
<div class="td">dolor sit amat</div>
</div>
Css:
.table-row {display: table-row}
.td {display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle;}
NOTE
This will not work with elements that are floated left/right, and it will change how the border width effects the overall width of the element.
I would only use this with tabular data, much like I would suggest only using a table.

My link is not recognized by its parent <div>. why?

I have a <a> in a <div> but the <div> doesn't recongize the <a> and adjust and increase its height to accomodate the link.
Check it out my html/css here: http://jsfiddle.net/RjfVN/2/
That is because your section-link class has float: left;
You need to clear the float. To do this you can add a div directly after the closing </a> like:
<div style="clear: left;"></div>
Or
<div class="clearfix"></div>
And add .clearfix{ clear: both; } to your css so you can reuse it.
Put overflow:auto to your #main.
Yep, your link is using float:left. There are a few ways to fix it.
Have something after the link (like #footer for instance) clear: left (or both).
Float the #main container div as well, or give it position: absolute
Add overflow: auto to the #main container div.
However, in cases 2 & 3 you will need to set the width of the container as well, since it won't have the initial 100% width that it's using. Also, in Internet explorer, setting the width is actually required for the overflow to have any effect because it forces the container to hasLayout.

Child div should be as high as parent div

I need a child div to be as high as its parent, but I do not know the parent's height. It can change.
Setting "height: 100%" does not work, as the div will take the height of the entire page.
This is the layout of the divs:
<div id="deelnemersballoon">
<div class="balloonarrow"></div>
<div class="balloonborder">
<div class="ballooncontent">
<div id="aantaldeelnemers">1</div>
<div id="deelnemertekst">deelnemer werd toegevoegd.</div>
<div class="clear">
<button>Add something</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
.balloonarrow should be as high as #deelnemersballoon
set parent div height in pixels (for ex height:100px ) and set child as 100% (height:100%) . Child only occupies parent div width fully
I never had much luck with height: 100%; even when playing by the rules. What does .balloonarrow do? If you're just trying to snap a graphic to the bottom of the div, you can try position: absolute; and bottom: 0px;, as long as #deelnemersballoon is set to position: relative;.
If you're just looking to make a solid/patterned visual contained by .balloonarrow, you're better off making a stretch image: create an image 3px or 4px tall, make it the background of #deelnemersballoon, and set it to repeat-y. Quick and dirty way to make a 100% height sidebar.
Hope this helps, can't tell much more without seeing your css.
A child div will not take up 100% of its parent if it has something in the markup before it:
Html:
<div id='parent'>Parent (Mark up before child)<div id='child'>Child</div></div>
css:
#parent {background:blue; height:500px; color:white}
#child {background:red; height:100%}
You can find a working example here. (Removing the text from the #parent div will make the child fill it 100%)
http://jsfiddle.net/wcprA/2/
The same thing applies if you have markup after the 100% child aswell, as seen here
http://jsfiddle.net/wcprA/5/
Try adding position:relative to the parent div. Then the 100% on the child div should reference the parent div. In general 100% height is going to look for the nearest parent element that has a position set on it - and if it doesn't find any it will eventually find the body tag and use that.

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