371

In a 3-row layout:

  • the top row should be sized according to its contents
  • the bottom row should have a fixed height in pixels
  • the middle row should expand to fill the container

The problem is that as the main content expands, it squishes the header and footer rows:

Flexing Bad

section {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
  align-items: stretch;
  height: 300px;
}
header {
  flex: 0 1 auto;
  background: tomato;
}
div {
  flex: 1 1 auto;
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}
footer {
  flex: 0 1 60px;
  background: lightgreen;
  /* fixes the footer: min-height: 60px; */
}
<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- uncomment to see it break - ->
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- -->
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

Fiddle:

I'm in the lucky situation that I can use the latest and greatest in CSS, disregarding legacy browsers. I thought I could use the flex layout to finally get rid of the old table-based layouts. For some reason, it's not doing what I want...

For the record, there are many related questions on SO about "filling the remaining height", but nothing that solves the problem I'm having with flex. Refs:

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6
  • Seems to be working as expected on the fiddle. Commented Aug 2, 2014 at 18:19
  • Yes, you need to uncomment the rest of the <div>'s content to see how it breaks. Maybe I should have linked the broken version. Sorry. Commented Aug 2, 2014 at 18:20
  • I have added both versions to the question now. Commented Aug 2, 2014 at 18:24
  • I see what you mean now. Commented Aug 2, 2014 at 18:31
  • dup of stackoverflow.com/questions/90178/…? Commented Jun 10, 2017 at 20:07

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
424

Make it simple : DEMO

section {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
  height: 300px;
}

header {
  background: tomato;
  /* no flex rules, it will grow */
}

div {
  flex: 1;  /* 1 and it will fill whole space left if no flex value are set to other children*/
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}

footer {
  background: lightgreen;
  min-height: 60px;  /* min-height has its purpose :) , unless you meant height*/
}
<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br/>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- uncomment to see it break -->
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- -->
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

Full screen version 

section {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
  height: 100vh;
}

header {
  background: tomato;
  /* no flex rules, it will grow */
}

div {
  flex: 1;
  /* 1 and it will fill whole space left if no flex value are set to other children*/
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}

footer {
  background: lightgreen;
  min-height: 60px;
  /* min-height has its purpose :) , unless you meant height*/
}

body {
  margin: 0;
}
<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br/>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- uncomment to see it break -->
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- -->
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

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14 Comments

Thanks again. Now I have another question about your solution, if you're interested. It's too long for a comment, so I opened a new topic: stackoverflow.com/questions/25105765
What if we want section to have a 100% height?
@PaulTotzke Then it is morelike another question , you just need to set height to 100%. As usual , parents needs an height set/usable, else we have the classic 100% of 'null' example for code above : html,body,section {height:100%;} where section is direct child of body jsfiddle.net/7yLFL/445 this gives a header and footer fixed.
@link2pk you need to reset margin on body jsfiddle.net/5bacx1ge
@PaulTotzke I just replaced the fixed height on section css by the viewport 100%: height: 100vh;. It worked for me on Chrome and Safari
|
25

The example below includes scrolling behaviour if the content of the expanded centre component extends past its bounds. Also the centre component takes 100% of remaining space in the viewport.

html,
body,
.r_flex_container {
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  background: red;
  margin: 0;
}
.r_flex_container {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column nowrap;
  background-color: blue;
}

.r_flex_fixed_child {
  flex: none;
  background-color: black;
  color: white;
}
.r_flex_expand_child {
  flex: auto;
  background-color: yellow;
  overflow-y: scroll;
}
<html>
<body>
    <div class="r_flex_container">
        <div class="r_flex_fixed_child">
            <p> This is the fixed 'header' child of the flex container </p>
        </div>
        <div class="r_flex_expand_child">
            <article>
                this child container expands to use all of the space given to it - but could be shared with other
                expanding childs in which case they would get equal space after the fixed container space is allocated.
                Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum
                sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies
                nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel,
                aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum
                felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate
                eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante,
                dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum.
                Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam
                rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque
                sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt
                tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget eros
                faucibus tincidunt. Duis leo. Sed fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat,
                leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc,
            </article>
        </div>
        <div class="r_flex_fixed_child">
            this is the fixed footer child of the flex container
            asdfadsf
            <p> another line</p>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

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2 Comments

This can be slightly simplified by removing html from the selector and appyling height: 100vh to body specifically: jsfiddle.net/pm6nqcqh/1
I did notice a difference between flex:auto and flex:1 on the expandable child. With flex:auto, other children seem to shrink when needed, with flex:1 they don't (in Chrome)
14

Use the flex-grow property to the main content div and give the display: flex; to its parent;

body {
    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;
    margin: 0;
}
section {
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction : column;
}
header {
  background: tomato;
}
div {
  flex: 1; /* or flex-grow: 1  */;
  overflow-x: auto;
  background: gold;
}
footer {
  background: lightgreen;
  min-height: 60px;
}
<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

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2 Comments

Is there any other solution to this problem (where section height isn't fixed?) rather than using position: absolute?
@ben If you know the height of the element. Then you can avoid using position: absolute; . https://jsfiddle.net/xa26brzf/
12

A more modern approach would be to use the grid property.

section {
  display: grid;
  align-items: stretch;
  height: 300px;
  grid-template-rows: min-content auto 60px;
}
header {
  background: tomato;
}
div {
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}
footer {
  background: lightgreen;
}
<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

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1 Comment

This is overflowing past the height of the viewport
12

This is the simplest example that I can think of. The key is

  1. Parent is display:flex
  2. Child has flex-grow:1
  3. Parent MUST have height specified. If you specify height:100% on a parent div, then remember, the parent exists in a <body> and you'll see the body isn't 100% unless you add height:100% on the body too.

http://jsfiddle.net/Ljbzsmvf/2/

div#parent {
  height: 300px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}

div#child {
  border: thin solid red;
  flex-grow: 1;
}
<div id='parent'>
  Parent
  <div id='child'>
    Child
  </div>
</div>

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Comments

2

Here is the codepen demo showing the solution:

Important highlights:

  • all containers from html, body, ... .container, should have the height set to 100%
  • introducing flex to ANY of the flex items will trigger calculation of the items sizes based on flex distribution:
    • if only one cell is set to flex, for example: flex: 1 then this flex item will occupy the remaining of the space
    • if there are more than one with the flex property, the calculation will be more complicated. For example, if the item 1 is set to flex: 1 and the item 2 is se to flex: 2 then the item 2 will take twice more of the remaining space
  • Main Size Property
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