How to make an inline-block element fill the remainder of the line?

195
votes

Is such a thing possible using CSS and two inline-block (or whatever) DIV tags instead of using a table?

The table version is this (borders added so you can see it):

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head></head>
<body>
<table style="width:100%;">
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid black;width:100px;height:10px;"></td>
<td style="border:1px solid black;height:10px;"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

It produces a left column with a FIXED WIDTH (not a percentage width), and a right column that expands to fill THE REMAINING SPACE on the line. Sounds pretty simple, right? Furthermore, since nothing is "floated", the parent container's height properly expands to encompass the height of the content.

--BEGIN RANT--
I've seen the "clear fix" and "holy grail" implementations for multi-column layouts with fixed-width side column, and they suck and they're complicated. They reverse the order of elements, they use percentage widths, or they use floats, negative margins, and the relationship between the "left", "right", and "margin" attributes are complex. Furthermore, the layouts are sub-pixel sensitive so that adding even a single pixel of borders, padding, or margins will break the whole layout, and send entire columns wrapping to the next line. For example, rounding errors are a problem even if you try to do something simple, like put 4 elements on a line, with each one's width set to 25%.
--END RANT--

I've tried using "inline-block" and "white-space:nowrap;", but the problem is I just can't get the 2nd element to fill the remaining space on the line. Setting the width to something like "width:100%-(LeftColumWidth)px" will work in some cases, but performing a calculation in a width property is not really supported.

7
csslayoutfixed-width
I don't think there is a sane way to do this except turning this into a display: table-* construct which will work, but isn't really "more semantic" either (being a terrible case of div soup) and breaks IE6 compatibility. I personally would stick with the <table>, unless somebody manages to come up with a genius simple idea that works without – Pekka
Yeah. I keep running into all these "avoid tables" arguments from the dawn of the CSS age, and they're worded to make you sound like an incompetent lazy moron if you still use tables for layouts. Fast forward a decade, and it's still an idealistic pipe-dream. The fact is, flow layout semantics SUCK for fixed-but-flexible layouts like user interfaces and forms. The truth is that smart people will use tables where convenient, because they've exhausted every possible CSS solution and realized that they're all imperfect and significantly more complex than just using a table. – Triynko
Floats? Show me working code, where end-of-line elements don't line-wrap unpredictably and borders and margins don't break the layout. That's what's wrong with them. Also, does the automatically-sized parent container properly expand to encompass floating elements with out the "clear fix" hacks? I didn't think so. – Triynko
If you've got at least one non-floated element in your parent container, then it's not really a "hack" to clear floats, now is it? Remember that CSS has its roots in printing - see css-tricks.com/containers-dont-clear-floats for a good discussion of why you don't get auto-clearing. – Chowlett
@Triynko: This is what I made earlier: jsfiddle.net/thirtydot/qx32C - I think it hits most of your points. I'll hear your critique of that demo I did, and try to fix it afterwards. – thirtydot

7 Answers

174
votes

See: http://jsfiddle.net/qx32C/36/

.lineContainer {
    overflow: hidden; /* clear the float */
    border: 1px solid #000
}
.lineContainer div {
    height: 20px
} 
.left {
    width: 100px;
    float: left;
    border-right: 1px solid #000
}
.right {
    overflow: hidden;
    background: #ccc
}
<div class="lineContainer">
    <div class="left">left</div>
    <div class="right">right</div>
</div>

Why did I replace margin-left: 100px with overflow: hidden on .right?

EDIT: Here are two mirrors for the above (dead) link:

68
votes

A modern solution using flexbox:

.container {
    display: flex;
}
.container > div {
    border: 1px solid black;
    height: 10px;
}

.left {
   width: 100px;
}

.right {
    width: 100%;
    background-color:#ddd;
}
<div class="container">
  <div class="left"></div>
  <div class="right"></div>
</div>

http://jsfiddle.net/m5Xz2/100/

48
votes

Compatible with common modern browers (IE 8+): http://jsfiddle.net/m5Xz2/3/

.lineContainer {
    display:table;
    border-collapse:collapse;
    width:100%;
}
.lineContainer div {
    display:table-cell;
    border:1px solid black;
    height:10px;
}
.left {
    width:100px;
}
 <div class="lineContainer">
    <div class="left">left</div>
    <div class="right">right</div>
</div>
5
votes

You can use calc (100% - 100px) on the fluid element, along with display:inline-block for both elements.

Be aware that there should not be any space between the tags, otherwise you will have to consider that space in your calc too.

.left{
    display:inline-block;
    width:100px;
}
.right{
    display:inline-block;
    width:calc(100% - 100px);
}


<div class=“left”></div><div class=“right”></div>

Quick example: http://jsfiddle.net/dw689mt4/1/

2
votes

I've used flex-grow property to achieve this goal. You'll have to set display: flex for parent container, then you need to set flex-grow: 1 for the block you want to fill remaining space, or just flex: 1 as tanius mentioned in the comments.

0
votes

If you can't use overflow: hidden (because you don't want overflow: hidden) or if you dislike CSS hacks/workarounds, you could use JavaScript instead. Note that it may not work as well because it's JavaScript.

var parent = document.getElementsByClassName("lineContainer")[0];
var left = document.getElementsByClassName("left")[0];
var right = document.getElementsByClassName("right")[0];
right.style.width = (parent.offsetWidth - left.offsetWidth) + "px";
window.onresize = function() {
  right.style.width = (parent.offsetWidth - left.offsetWidth) + "px";
}
.lineContainer {
  width: 100% border: 1px solid #000;
  font-size: 0px;
  /* You need to do this because inline block puts an invisible space between them and they won't fit on the same line */
}

.lineContainer div {
  height: 10px;
  display: inline-block;
}

.left {
  width: 100px;
  background: red
}

.right {
  background: blue
}
<div class="lineContainer">
  <div class="left"></div>
  <div class="right"></div>
</div>

http://jsfiddle.net/ys2eogxm/

0
votes

When you give up the inline blocks

.post-container {
    border: 5px solid #333;
    overflow:auto;
}
.post-thumb {
    float: left;
    display:block;
    background:#ccc;
    width:200px;
    height:200px;
}
.post-content{
    display:block;
    overflow:hidden;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/RXrvZ/3731/

(from CSS Float: Floating an image to the left of the text)