How to make child divs always fit inside parent div?
HtmlCssParentHtml Problem Overview
My question is if there is a way, without using JavaScript, to cause child divs to extend to the borders of their parent, without exceeding those borders, when you cannot know beforehand the size of the parent div?
Below is sample markup/styles demonstrating my issue. If you load it into a browser you will see that #two
and #three
both extend outside their parent, #one
, and cause scrollbars to appear.
My issue is not so much the scrollbars, but that I do not know how to tell the child divs to occupy the width or height remaining to them, rather than the full height or width of the parent.
<html>
<head>
<style>
html, body {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;}
.border {border:1px solid black;}
.margin { margin:5px;}
#one {width:100%;height:100%;}
#two {width:100%;height:50px;}
#three {width:100px;height:100%;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="one" class="border">
<div id="two" class="border margin"></div>
<div id="three" class="border margin"></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Html Solutions
Solution 1 - Html
I had a similar problem, but in my case, I have content in my div that height-wise will exceed the boundaries of the parent div. When it does, I want it to auto-scroll. I was able to accomplish this by using
.vscrolling_container { height: 100%; overflow: auto; }
Solution 2 - Html
you could use display: inline-block;
hope it is useful.
Solution 3 - Html
In your example, you can't: the 5px margin
is added to the bounding box of div#two
and div#three
effectively making their width and height 100% of parent + 5px, which will overflow.
You can use padding
on the parent Element to ensure there's 5px
of space inside its border:
<style>
html, body {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;}
.border {border:1px solid black;}
#one {padding:5px;width:500px;height:300px;}
#two {width:100%;height:50px;}
#three {width:100px;height:100%;}
</style>
EDIT: In testing, removing the width:100%
from div#two
will actually let it work properly as div
s are block-level and will always fill their parents' widths by default. That should clear your first case if you'd like to use margin.
Solution 4 - Html
There are two techniques commonly used for this:
- Absolute Positioning
- Table Styles
Given the HTML you provided here is the solution using Absolute positioning:
body #one {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
width: auto;
height: auto;
}
body #two {
width: auto;
}
body #three {
position: absolute;
top: 60px;
bottom: 0;
height: auto;
}
<html>
<head>
<style>
html, body {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;}
.border {border:1px solid black;}
.margin { margin:5px;}
#one {width:100%;height:100%;}
#two {width:100%;height:50px;}
#three {width:100px;height:100%;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="one" class="border">
<div id="two" class="border margin"></div>
<div id="three" class="border margin"></div>
</div>
</body
You can always just use the table, tr, and td elements directly despite common criticisms as it will get the job done. If you prefer to use CSS there is no equivalent for colspan so you will likely end up with nested tables. Here is an example:
html, body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
width: 100%;
}
#one {
box-sizing: border-box;
display: table;
height: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
width: 100%;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#two {
box-sizing: border-box;
display: table;
height: 50px;
padding: 5px;
width: 100%;
}
#three {
box-sizing: border-box;
display: table;
height: 100%;
padding-bottom: 60px;
padding-left: 5px;
}
#four {
display: table-cell;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#five {
display: table-cell;
width: 100px;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#six {
display: table-cell;
}
<html>
<div id="one">
<div id="two">
<div id="four"></div>
</div>
<div id="three">
<div id="five"></div>
<div id="six"></div>
</div>
</div>
</html>
Solution 5 - Html
For width it's easy, simply remove the width: 100%
rule. By default, the div
will stretch to fit the parent container.
Height is not quite so simple. You could do something like the equal height column trick.
html, body {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;}
.border {border:1px solid black;}
.margin { margin:5px;}
#one {width:500px;height:300px; overflow: hidden;}
#two {height:50px;}
#three {width:100px; padding-bottom: 30000px; margin-bottom: -30000px;}
Solution 6 - Html
you could use inherit
#one {width:500px;height:300px;}
#two {width:inherit;height:inherit;}
#three {width:inherit;height:inherit;}
Solution 7 - Html
If I've understood you correctly, the easiest method is to float the children. For example:
#one { width: 500px; height: 1%; overflow: hidden; background: red; }
#two { float: left; width: 250px; height: 400px; background: aqua; }
#two { float: left; width: 250px; height: 200px; background: lime; }
Setting a dimension (height/width) and overflow to auto or hidden on the parent element causes it to contain any floated child elements.
Note that overflow:hidden; can occasionally cause problems with content getting cut off, in which case you might want to try this alternative method:
Solution 8 - Html
For closure, I think the answer to this question is that there is no solution. The only way to get the behavior I want is with javascript.
Solution 9 - Html
Make sure the outermost div has the following CSS properties:
.outer {
/* ... */
height: auto;
overflow: hidden;
/* ... */
}
Solution 10 - Html
I think I have the solution to your question, assuming you can use flexbox in your project. What you want to do is make #one
a flexbox using display: flex
and use flex-direction: column
to make it a column alignment.
html,
body {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
.border {
border: 1px solid black;
}
.margin {
margin: 5px;
}
#one {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
}
#two {
height: 50px;
}
#three {
width: 100px;
height: 100%;
}
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div id="one" class="border">
<div id="two" class="border margin"></div>
<div id="three" class="border margin"></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Solution 11 - Html
If you want the child divs to fit the parent size, you should put a margin at least of the size of the child borders on the child divs (child.margin >= child.bordersize
).
For this example, just remove the width:100%; and the height:100% in #one and remove the width:100% in #two. It should be something like this:
html, body {width:100%; height:100%; margin:0; padding:0;}
.border {border:1px solid black;}
.margin {margin:5px;}
\#one {}
\#two {height:50px;}
\#three {width:100px; height:100%;}