How to align 3 divs (left/center/right) inside another div?

422

votes

I want to have 3 divs aligned inside a container div, something like this:

[[LEFT]       [CENTER]        [RIGHT]]

Container div is 100% wide (no set width), and center div should remain in center after resizing the container.

So I set:

#container{width:100%;}
#left{float:left;width:100px;}
#right{float:right;width:100px;}
#center{margin:0 auto;width:100px;}

But it becomes:

[[LEFT]       [CENTER]              ]
                              [RIGHT]

Any tips?

htmlcssalignmentcss-float

If the container becomes narrower than 300px wide, that's going to happen unless you set the overflow property. - brettkelly

Flexbox and also Grid: jsfiddle.net/w0s4xmc0/12963 - m4n0

Just to note - As per @inkedmn's comment, with a bunch of content in each column I couldn't get them all to align properly at any container width without overflow: hidden; on the center column. Then in media query for small devices when I had all 3 columns center on the page on top of each other, I needed overflow: hidden; on the middle row (which was the right column on large devices) otherwise it had no height and wasn't centered vertically between the top and bottom row. - Chris L

386

votes

With that CSS, put your divs like so (floats first):

<div id="container">
  <div id="left"></div>
  <div id="right"></div>
  <div id="center"></div>
</div>

P.S. You could also float right, then left, then center. The important thing is that the floats come before the "main" center section.

P.P.S. You often want last inside #container this snippet: <div style="clear:both;"></div> which will extend #container vertically to contain both side floats instead of taking its height only from #center and possibly allowing the sides to protrude out the bottom.

146

votes

Aligning Three Divs Horizontally Using Flexbox

Here is a CSS3 method for aligning divs horizontally inside another div.

#container {
  display: flex;                  /* establish flex container */
  flex-direction: row;            /* default value; can be omitted */
  flex-wrap: nowrap;              /* default value; can be omitted */
  justify-content: space-between; /* switched from default (flex-start, see below) */
  background-color: lightyellow;
}
#container > div {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  border: 2px dashed red;
}

<div id="container">
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
</div>

jsFiddle

The justify-content property takes five values:

flex-start (default)
flex-end
center
space-between
space-around

In all cases, the three divs are on the same line. For a description of each value see: https://stackoverflow.com/a/33856609/3597276

Benefits of flexbox:

minimal code; very efficient
centering, both vertically and horizontally, is simple and easy
equal height columns are simple and easy
multiple options for aligning flex elements
it's responsive
unlike floats and tables, which offer limited layout capacity because they were never intended for building layouts, flexbox is a modern (CSS3) technique with a broad range of options.

To learn more about flexbox visit:

Methods for Aligning Flex Items
Using CSS flexible boxes ~ MDN
A Complete Guide to Flexbox ~ CSS-Tricks
What the Flexbox?! ~ YouTube video tutorial

Browser support: Flexbox is supported by all major browsers, except IE < 10. Some recent browser versions, such as Safari 8 and IE10, require vendor prefixes. For a quick way to add prefixes use Autoprefixer. More details in this answer.

135

votes

If you do not want to change your HTML structure you can also do by adding text-align: center; to the wrapper element and a display: inline-block; to the centered element.

#container {
    width:100%;
    text-align:center;
}

#left {
    float:left;
    width:100px;
}

#center {
    display: inline-block;
    margin:0 auto;
    width:100px;
}

#right {
    float:right;
    width:100px;
}

Live Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/CH9K8/

21

votes

Float property is actually not used to align the text.

This property is used to add element to either right or left or center.

div > div { border: 1px solid black;}

<html>
     <div>
         <div style="float:left">First</div>
         <div style="float:left">Second</div>
         <div style="float:left">Third</div>

         <div style="float:right">First</div>
         <div style="float:right">Second</div>
         <div style="float:right">Third</div>
     </div>
</html>

for float:left output will be [First][second][Third]

for float:right output will be [Third][Second][First]

That means float => left property will add your next element to left of previous one, Same case with right

Also you have to Consider the width of parent element, if the sum of widths of child elements exceed the width of parent element then the next element will be added at next line

 <html>
     <div style="width:100%">
       <div style="float:left;width:50%">First</div>
       <div style="float:left;width:50%">Second</div>
       <div style="float:left;width:50%">Third</div>
     </div>
</html>

[First] [Second]

[Third]

So you need to Consider All these aspect to get the perfect result

14

votes

There are several tricks available for aligning the elements.

01. Using Table Trick

.container{
  display:table;
 }

.left{
  background:green;
  display:table-cell;
  width:33.33vw;
}

.center{
  background:gold;
  display:table-cell;
  width:33.33vw;
}

.right{
  background:gray;
  display:table-cell;
  width:33.33vw;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="left">
    Left
  </div>
  <div class="center">
    Center
  </div>
  <div class="right">
    Right
  </div>
</div>

02. Using Flex Trick

.container{
  display:flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
   }

.left{
  background:green;
  width:33.33vw;
}

.center{
  background:gold;
   width:33.33vw;
}

.right{
  background:gray;
   width:33.33vw;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="left">
    Left
  </div>
  <div class="center">
    Center
  </div>
  <div class="right">
    Right
  </div>
</div>

03. Using Float Trick

.left{
  background:green;
  width:100px;
  float:left;
}

.center{
   background:gold;
   width:100px;
   float:left;
}

.right{
   background:gray;
   width:100px;
   float:left;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="left">
    Left
  </div>
  <div class="center">
    Center
  </div>
  <div class="right">
    Right
  </div>
</div>

13

votes

I like my bars tight and dynamic. This is for CSS 3 & HTML 5

First, setting the Width to 100px is limiting. Don't do it.
Second, setting the container's width to 100% will work ok, until were talking about it being a header/footer bar for the whole app, like a navigation or credits/copyright bar. Use right: 0; instead for that scenario.
You are using id's (hash #container, #left, etc) instead of classes (.container, .left, etc), which is fine, unless you want to repeat your style pattern elsewhere in your code. I'd consider using classes instead.
For HTML, no need to swap order for: left, center, & right. display: inline-block; fixes this, returning your code to something cleaner and logically in order again.
Lastly, you need to clear the floats all up so that it doesn't mess with future <div>. You do this with the clear: both;

To summarize:

HTML:

<div class="container">
  <div class="left"></div>
  <div class="center"></div>
  <div class="right"></div>
  <div class="clear"></div>
</div>

CSS:

.container {right: 0; text-align: center;}

.container .left, .container .center, .container .right { display: inline-block; }

.container .left { float: left; }
.container .center { margin: 0 auto; }
.container .right { float: right; }
.clear { clear: both; }

Bonus point if using HAML and SASS ;)

HAML:

.container
  .left
  .center
  .right
  .clear

SASS:

.container {
  right: 0;
  text-align: center;

  .left, .center, .right { display: inline-block; }

  .left { float: left; }
  .center { margin: 0 auto; }
  .right { float: right; }
  .clear { clear: both; }
}

11

votes

This can be easily done using the CSS3 Flexbox, a feature which will be used in the future(When <IE9 is completely dead) by almost every browser.

Check the Browser Compatibility Table

HTML

<div class="container">
  <div class="left">
    Left
  </div>
  <div class="center">
    Center
  </div>
  <div class="right">
    Right
  </div>
</div>

CSS

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: row nowrap; /* Align on the same line */
  justify-content: space-between; /* Equal margin between the child elements */
}

Output:

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: row nowrap; /* Align on the same line */
  justify-content: space-between; /* Equal margin between the child elements */
}

/* For Presentation, not needed */

.container > div {
  background: #5F85DB;
  padding: 5px;
  color: #fff;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-family: Tahoma;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="left">
    Left
  </div>
  <div class="center">
    Center
  </div>
  <div class="right">
    Right
  </div>
</div>

4

votes

With twitter bootstrap :

<p class="pull-left">Left aligned text.</p>
<p class="pull-right">Right aligned text.</p>
<p class="text-center">Center aligned text.</p>

3

votes

possible answer, if you want to keep the order of the html and not use flex.

HTML

<div class="a">
  <div class="c">
    the 
  </div>
  <div class="c e">
    jai ho 
  </div>
  <div class="c d">
    watsup
  </div>
</div>

CSS

.a {
  width: 500px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  border: 1px solid red;
  position: relative;
  display: table;
}

.c {
  display: table-cell;
  width:33%;
}

.d {
  text-align: right;
}

.e {
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  display: inline;
  width: auto;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
}

Code Pen Link

2

votes

HTML:

<div id="container" class="blog-pager">
   <div id="left">Left</div>
   <div id="right">Right</div>
   <div id="center">Center</div>    
</div>

CSS:

 #container{width:98%; }
 #left{float:left;}
 #center{text-align:center;}
 #right{float:right;}

text-align:center; gives perfect centre align.

JSFiddle Demo

2

votes

Using Bootstrap 3 I create 3 divs of equal width (in 12 column layout 4 columns for each div). This way you can keep your central zone centered even if left/right sections have different widths (if they don't overflow their columns' space).

HTML:

<div id="container">
  <div id="left" class="col col-xs-4 text-left">Left</div>
  <div id="center" class="col col-xs-4 text-center">Center</div>
  <div id="right" class="col col-xs-4 text-right">Right</div>
</div>

CSS:

#container {
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
  height: 100px;
}
.col {
  border: 1px solid #07f;
  padding: 0;
}

CodePen

To create that structure without libraries I copied some rules from Bootstrap CSS.

HTML:

<div id="container">
  <div id="left" class="col">Left</div>
  <div id="center" class="col">Center</div>
  <div id="right" class="col">Right</div>
</div>

CSS:

* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}
#container {
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
  height: 100px;
}
.col {
  float: left;
  width: 33.33333333%;
  border: 1px solid #07f;
  padding: 0;
}
#left {
  text-align: left;
}
#center {
  text-align: center;
}
#right {
  text-align: right;
}

CopePen

1

votes

I did another attempt to simplify this and achieve it without the necessity of a container.

HTML

<div class="box1">left side of the page</div>
<div class="box2">right side of the page</div>
<div class="box3">center of the page </div>

CSS

      .box1 {
      background-color: #ff0000;
      width: 200px;
      float: left;
    }
    
    .box2 {
      background-color: #00ff00;
      width: 200px;
      float: right;
    }
    
    .box3 {
      background-color: #0fffff;
      width: 200px;
      margin: 0 auto;
    }

You can see it live at JSFiddle

0

votes

Here are the changes that I had to make to the accepted answer when I did this with an image as the centre element:

Make sure the image is enclosed within a div (#center in this case). If it isn't, you'll have to set display to block, and it seems to centre relative to the space between the floated elements.

Make sure to set the size of both the image and its container:

#center {
    margin: 0 auto;
}

#center, #center > img {
    width: 100px;
    height: auto;
}

0

votes

You can try this:

Your html code like this:

<div id="container">
  <div id="left"></div>
  <div id="right"></div>
  <div id="center"></div>
</div>

and your css code like this:

#container{width:100%;}
#left{float:left;width:100px;}
#right{float:right;width:100px;}
#center{margin:0 auto;width:100px;}

so, it's output should be get like this:

[[LEFT]       [CENTER]        [RIGHT]]

0

votes

CSS grid can do the job easily:

#container {
  display: grid;                   /* (1) a grid container */
  grid-auto-flow:column;           /* (2) column layout    */
  justify-content: space-between;  /* (3) align the columns*/
  background-color: lightyellow;
}
#container > div {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  border: 2px dashed red;
}

<div id="container">
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
</div>

-1

votes

.processList
  text-align: center
  li
  .leftProcess
    float: left
  .centerProcess
    float: none
    display: inline-block
  .rightProcess
    float: right

html
ul.processList.clearfix
  li.leftProcess

li.centerProcess
li.rightProcess

-3

votes

You've done it correctly, you only need to clear your floats. Simply add

overflow: auto;

to your container class.

-6

votes

The easiest solution is to crate a table with 3 columns and center that table.

html:

 <div id="cont">
        <table class="aa">
            <tr>
                <td>
                    <div id="left">
                        <h3 class="hh">Content1</h3>
                        </div>
                    </td>
                <td>
                    <div id="center">
                        <h3 class="hh">Content2</h3>
                        </div>
                 </td>
                <td>
                    <div id="right"><h3 class="hh">Content3</h3>
                        </div>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </div>

css:

#cont 
{
  margin: 0px auto;    
  padding: 10px 10px;
}

#left
{    
  width: 200px;
  height: 160px;
  border: 5px solid #fff;
}

#center
{
  width: 200px;
  height: 160px;
  border: 5px solid #fff;
}

#right
{
  width: 200px;
  height: 160px;
  border: 5px solid #fff;
}

-10

votes

#warpcontainer  {width:800px; height:auto; border: 1px solid #000; float:left; }
#warpcontainer2 {width:260px; height:auto; border: 1px solid #000; float:left; clear:both; margin-top:10px }

How to align 3 divs (left/center/right) inside another div?

19 Answers

Aligning Three Divs Horizontally Using Flexbox

jsFiddle