[html] Make a div fill up the remaining width

How can I make a div fill up the remaining width?

<div id="Main" style="width: 500px;">
    <div id="div1" style="width: 100px;"></div>
    <div id="div2"></div>
    <div id="div3" style="width: 100px; float: right;"></div>
</div>

How can I get div2 to fill up the remainder?

This question is related to html css

The answer is


Flex-boxes are the solution - and they're fantastic. I've been wanting something like this out of css for a decade. All you need is to add display: flex to your style for "Main" and flex-grow: 100 (where 100 is arbitrary - its not important that it be exactly 100). Try adding this style (colors added to make the effect visible):

<style>
    #Main {
        background-color: lightgray;
        display: flex;
    }

    #div1 {
        border: 1px solid green;   
        height: 50px; 
        display: inline-flex; 
    }
    #div2 {
        border: 1px solid blue;    
        height: 50px;
        display: inline-flex;
        flex-grow: 100;
    }
    #div3 {
        border: 1px solid orange;        
        height: 50px;
        display: inline-flex;
    }
</style>

More info about flex boxes here: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/


The Div that has to take the remaining space has to be a class.. The other divs can be id(s) but they must have width..

CSS:

#main_center {
    width:1000px;
    height:100px;
    padding:0px 0px;
    margin:0px auto;
    display:block;
}
#left {
    width:200px;
    height:100px;
    padding:0px 0px;
    margin:0px auto;
    background:#c6f5c6;
    float:left;
}
.right {
    height:100px;
    padding:0px 0px;
    margin:0px auto;
    overflow:hidden;
    background:#000fff;
}
.clear {
    clear:both;
}

HTML:

<body>
    <div id="main_center">
        <div id="left"></div>
        <div class="right"></div>
        <div class="clear"></div>
    </div>
</body>

The following link has the code in action, which should solve the remaining area coverage issue.

jsFiddle


Up-to-date solution (October 2014) : ready for fluid layouts


Introduction:

This solution is even simpler than the one provided by Leigh. It is actually based on it.

Here you can notice that the middle element (in our case, with "content__middle" class) does not have any dimensional property specified - no width, nor padding, nor margin related property at all - but only an overflow: auto; (see note 1).

The great advantage is that now you can specify a max-width and a min-width to your left & right elements. Which is fantastic for fluid layouts.. hence responsive layout :-)

note 1: versus Leigh's answer where you need to add the margin-left & margin-right properties to the "content__middle" class.


Code with non-fluid layout:

Here the left & right elements (with classes "content__left" and "content__right") have a fixed width (in pixels): hence called non-fluid layout.

Live Demo on http://jsbin.com/qukocefudusu/1/edit?html,css,output

<style>
    /*
     * [1] & [3] "floats" makes the 2 divs align themselves respectively right & left
     * [2] "overflow: auto;" makes this div take the remaining width
     */
    .content {
        width: 100%;
    }
    .content__left {
        width: 100px;
        float: left; /* [1] */
        background-color: #fcc;
    }
    .content__middle {
        background-color: #cfc;
        overflow: auto; /* [2] */
    }
    .content__right {
        width: 100px;
        float: right; /* [3] */
        background-color: #ccf;
    }
</style>

<div class="content">
    <div class="content__left">
        left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>
    </div>
    <div class="content__right">
        right div<br/>right div<br/>right div<br/>right div<br/>
    </div>
    <div class="content__middle">
        middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br />bit taller
    </div>
</div>

Code with fluid layout:

Here the left & right elements (with classes "content__left" and "content__right") have a variable width (in percentages) but also a minimum and maximum width: hence called fluid layout.

Live Demo in a fluid layout with the max-width properties http://jsbin.com/runahoremuwu/1/edit?html,css,output

<style>
    /*
     * [1] & [3] "floats" makes the 2 divs align themselves respectively right & left
     * [2] "overflow: auto;" makes this div take the remaining width
     */
    .content { 
        width: 100%; 
    }
    .content__left { 
        width: 20%; 
        max-width: 170px;  
        min-width: 40px;  
        float: left; /* [1] */
        background-color: #fcc; 
     }
    .content__middle { 
        background-color: #cfc; 
        overflow: auto; /* [2] */
    }
    .content__right { 
        width: 20%; 
        max-width: 250px; 
        min-width: 80px; 
        float: right; /* [3] */
        background-color: #ccf; 
    }
</style>

<div class="content">
    <div class="content__left">
        max-width of 170px & min-width of 40px<br />left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>left div<br/>
    </div>
    <div class="content__right">
        max-width of 250px & min-width of 80px<br />right div<br/>right div<br/>right div<br/>right div<br/>
    </div>
    <div class="content__middle">
        middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br/>middle div<br />bit taller
    </div>
</div>

Browser Support

Tested on BrowserStack.com on the following web browsers:

  • IE7 to IE11
  • Ff 20, Ff 28
  • Safari 4.0 (windows XP), Safari 5.1 (windows XP)
  • Chrome 20, Chrome 25, Chrome 30, Chrome 33,
  • Opera 20

Although a bit late in posting an answer, here is an alternative approach without using margins.

<style>
    #divMain { width: 500px; }
    #div1 { width: 100px; float: left; background-color: #fcc; }
    #div2 { overflow:hidden; background-color: #cfc; }
    #div3 { width: 100px; float: right; background-color: #ccf; }
</style>

<div id="divMain">
    <div id="div1">
        div 1
    </div>
    <div id="div3">
        div 3
    </div>
    <div id="div2">
        div 2<br />bit taller
    </div>
</div>

This method works like magic, but here is an explanation :)\

Fiddle with a similar sample here.


I was looking for a solution to the opposite problem where I needed a fixed width div in the centre and a fluid width div on either side, so I came up with the following and thought I'd post it here in case anyone needs it.

_x000D_
_x000D_
#wrapper {_x000D_
  clear: both;_x000D_
  width: 100%;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
#wrapper div {_x000D_
  display: inline-block;_x000D_
  height: 500px;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
#center {_x000D_
  background-color: green;_x000D_
  margin: 0 auto;_x000D_
  overflow: auto;_x000D_
  width: 500px;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
#left {_x000D_
  float: left;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
#right {_x000D_
  float: right;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
.fluid {_x000D_
  background-color: yellow;_x000D_
  width: calc(50% - 250px);_x000D_
}
_x000D_
<div id="wrapper">_x000D_
  <div id="center">_x000D_
    This is fixed width in the centre_x000D_
  </div>_x000D_
  <div id="left" class="fluid">_x000D_
    This is fluid width on the left_x000D_
  </div>_x000D_
  <div id="right" class="fluid">_x000D_
    This is fluid width on the right_x000D_
  </div>_x000D_
</div>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_

If you change the width of the #center element then you need to update the width property of .fluid to:

width: calc(50% - [half of center width]px);

Use the CSS Flexbox flex-grow property to achieve this.

_x000D_
_x000D_
.main {
  display: flex;
}
.col-1, .col-3 {
  width: 100px;
}
.col-2 {
  flex-grow: 1;
}
_x000D_
<div class="main">
  <div class="col-1" style="background: #fc9;">Left column</div>
  <div class="col-2" style="background: #eee;">Middle column</div>
  <div class="col-3" style="background: #fc9;">Right column</div>
</div>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_