How to make a parent div auto size to the width of its children divs

Question

I m trying to make the parent div only as wide as the child div s  Auto width is making the parent div fit the entire screen  The children divs will be different widths depending on their content so I need the parent div to adjust accordingly    lt div style  width auto   gt     lt div style  width  135px  float  left   gt       lt h4 style  padding-right  5px  padding-left  15px   gt Column1 lt  h4 gt       lt dl style  padding-right  5px  padding-left  15px  margin-top  -8px  overflow-x  hidden   gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 1 lt  dd gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 2 lt  dd gt       lt  dl gt        lt h4 style  padding-right  5px  padding-left  15px   gt Column1 lt  h4 gt       lt dl style  padding-right  5px  padding-left  15px  margin-top  -8px  overflow-x  hidden   gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 1 lt  dd gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 2 lt  dd gt       lt  dl gt     lt  div gt      lt div style  width  135px  float  right   gt       lt h4 style  padding-right  5px  padding-left  10px   gt Column2 lt  h4 gt       lt dl style  padding-right  5px  padding-left  15px  margin-top  -8px  overflow-x  hidden   gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 1 lt  dd gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 2 lt  dd gt         lt dd style  white-space  nowrap   gt 3 lt  dd gt       lt  dl gt     lt  div gt   lt  div gt

User · Answer

The parent div  I assume the outermost div  is display  block and will fill up all available area of its container  in this case  the body  that it can   Use a different display type -- inline-block is probably what you are going for   http   jsfiddle net a78xy

User · Answer

Your interior  lt div gt  elements should likely both be float left   Divs size to 100  the size of their container width automatically   Try using display inline-block instead of width auto on the container div   Or possibly float left the container and also apply overflow auto   Depends on what you re after exactly

[html] How to make a parent div auto size to the width of its children divs

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