Adjust width of input field to its input

Question

lt html gt     lt head gt     lt  head gt     lt body gt       lt input type  text  value  1  style  min-width 1px     gt     lt  body gt   lt  html gt    This is my code and it is not working  Is there any other way in HTML  JavaScript  PHP or CSS to set minimum width   I want a text input field with a dynamically changing width  so that the input field fluids around its contents  Every input has a built-in padding of 2em  that is the problem and second problem is that min-width ain t working on input at all   If I set width more than it is needed than the whole program is messy  I need the width of 1px  more only if it s needed

User · Answer

Quite simple   oninput  this style width    this scrollWidth - N     px      Where N is some number  2 in the example  17 on something I m developing  that is determined experimentally   Subtracting N prevents this strange extrenuous space from accumulating long before the text reaches the end of the text box   Compare  Pay careful attention to how the size changes after even just the first character   x000D   x000D   lt p gt Subtracting N  lt  p gt      x000D   lt input type  text  placeholder  enter lots of text here  oninput  this style width    this scrollWidth-2     px    gt  x000D   x000D   lt p gt Not Subtracting N  lt  p gt      x000D   lt input type  text  placeholder  enter lots of text here  oninput  this style width    this scrollWidth     px    gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

Here s a modification of Lyth s answer that takes into account    Deletion  Initialisation Placeholders   It also allows for any number of input fields  To see it in action  http   jsfiddle net 4Qsa8   Script     document  ready function          var  inputs       resizing-input            Resize based on text if text length  gt  0        Otherwise resize based on the placeholder     function resizeForText text            var  this     this           if   text trim                  text    this attr  placeholder   trim                      var  span    this parent   find  span             span text text           var  inputSize    span width             this css  width    inputSize               inputs find  input   keypress function  e            if  e which  amp  amp  e charCode                var c   String fromCharCode e keyCode   e charCode               var  this     this               resizeForText call  this   this val     c                             Backspace event only fires for keyup      inputs find  input   keyup function  e             if  e keyCode     8    e keyCode     46                resizeForText call   this     this  val                             inputs find  input   each function              var  this     this           resizeForText call  this   this val                  Style     resizing-input input   resizing-input span       font-size  12px      font-family  Sans-serif      white-space  pre      padding  5px      HTML    lt div class  resizing-input  gt       lt input type  text  placeholder  placeholder   gt       lt span  style  display none  gt  lt  span gt   lt  div gt     x000D   x000D    document  ready function     x000D    var  inputs       resizing-input    x000D   x000D       Resize based on text if text length  gt  0 x000D       Otherwise resize based on the placeholder x000D    function resizeForText text    x000D      var  this     this   x000D      if   text trim      x000D        text    this attr  placeholder   trim    x000D        x000D      var  span    this parent   find  span    x000D       span text text   x000D      var  inputSize    span width    x000D       this css  width    inputSize   x000D      x000D   x000D     inputs find  input   keypress function e    x000D      if  e which  amp  amp  e charCode    x000D        var c   String fromCharCode e keyCode   e charCode   x000D        var  this     this   x000D        resizeForText call  this   this val     c   x000D        x000D        x000D   x000D       Backspace event only fires for keyup x000D     inputs find  input   keyup function e    x000D      if  e keyCode     8    e keyCode     46    x000D        resizeForText call   this     this  val     x000D        x000D        x000D   x000D     inputs find  input   each function     x000D      var  this     this   x000D      resizeForText call  this   this val    x000D        x000D      x000D   resizing-input input  x000D   resizing-input span   x000D    font-size  12px  x000D    font-family  Sans-serif  x000D    white-space  pre  x000D    padding  5px  x000D    x000D   lt script src  https   ajax googleapis com ajax libs jquery 2 1 0 jquery min js  gt  lt  script gt  x000D   lt div class  resizing-input  gt  x000D    First  x000D     lt input type  text  placeholder  placeholder    gt  x000D     lt span style  display none  gt  lt  span gt  x000D   lt  div gt  x000D   lt br gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

FOR A NICER LOOK amp FEEL  You should use jQuery keypress   event in combination with String fromCharCode e which  to get the pressed character  Hence you can calculate what your width will be  Why  Because it will look a lot more sexy     Here is a jsfiddle that results in a nice behaviour compared to solutions using the keyup event   http   jsfiddle net G4FKW 3   Below is a vanilla JS which listens to the input event of an  lt input gt  element and sets a span sibling to have the same text value in order to measure it    x000D   x000D  document querySelector  input   addEventListener  input   onInput  x000D   x000D  function onInput    x000D      var spanElm   this nextElementSibling  x000D      spanElm textContent   this value     the hidden span takes the value of the input   x000D      this style width   spanElm offsetWidth    px      apply width of the span to the input x000D     x000D     it s important the input and its span have same styling    x000D  input   measure   x000D      padding  5px  x000D      font-size  2 3rem  x000D      font-family  Sans-serif  x000D      white-space  pre     white-spaces will work effectively    x000D    x000D   x000D   measure    x000D    position  absolute  x000D    left  -9999px  x000D    top  -9999px  x000D    x000D   lt input type  text    gt  x000D   lt span class  measure  gt  lt  span gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

Although this post is old already  I d like to add a much more simple solution and don t know why only such huge and or complex solutions have been provided  Here s a simple function to get what is needed  function resizeInput         const input   document getElementById  myInput        input style width      input scrollWidth px

User · Answer

I really liked Lyth s answer  but also really wanted it to    Handle backspace and delete Not require you to manually add an adjacent  tag  Enforce a min width  Automatically be applied to elements with a specific class   I adapted his JSFiddle and came up with this  One improvement not present in this fiddle would be to use something like the jQuery CSS Parser to actually read the initial width from the input textbox-autosize rule  and use that as the minWidth  Right I m simply using an attribute on the   which makes for a compact demo but is not ideal  as it requires an extra attribute on each input  You might also just want to put the minWidth as 100 right in the JavaScript   HTML    lt div id  applicationHost  gt   lt div gt Name     lt input class  textbox-autosize  data-min-width  100  type  text    gt  lt  div gt   lt div gt Email    lt input class  textbox-autosize  data-min-width  100  type  email    gt  lt  div gt   lt div gt Points   lt input class  textbox-autosize  data-min-width  100  type  number    gt  lt  div gt   lt  div gt    CSS    applicationHost       font-family  courier      white-space  pre     input textbox-autosize  span invisible-autosize-helper       padding 0      font-size 12px      font-family Sans-serif       white-space pre    input textbox-autosize       width  100px     Initial width of textboxes          In order for the measurements to work out  your input and the invisible span need to have the same styling       JavaScript       applicationHost   on  keyup     textbox-autosize   function e           Add an arbitary buffer of 15 pixels      var whitespaceBuffer   15      var je     this       var minWidth   parseInt je attr  data-min-width         var newVal   je val        var sizingSpanClass    invisible-autosize-helper       var  span   je siblings  span     sizingSpanClass  first           If this element hasn t been created yet  we ll create it now      if   span length     0             span       lt span  gt                   class   sizingSpanClass               style    display  none                       je parent   append  span              span   je siblings  span   first         span text newVal       the hidden span takes         the value of the input      inputSize    span width         inputSize    whitespaceBuffer      if  inputSize  gt  minWidth          je css  width    inputSize       apply width of the span to the input     else         je css  width   minWidth       Ensure we re at the min width

User · Answer

It sounds like your expectation is that the style be applied dynamically to the width of the textbox based on the contents of the textbox   If so you will need some js to run on textbox contents changing  something like this    lt input id  txt  type  text  onkeypress  this style width     this value length   1    8     px    gt    Note  this solution only works when every character is exactly 8px wide

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Here is my 2 cents  Create an empty invisible div  Fill it with the input content and return the width to the input field  Match text styles between each box    x000D   x000D      answers number   keyup function    x000D           number box    html     this   val      x000D         this   animate   x000D          width       number box    width   20 x000D             300  function     x000D          x000D      x000D   number box   x000D     position  absolute  x000D     visibility  hidden  x000D     height  auto  x000D     width  auto  x000D     white-space  nowrap  x000D     padding 0 4px  x000D       Your font styles to match input   x000D     font-family Arial  x000D     font-size  30px   x000D    x000D       x000D   answers number   x000D     font-size  30px   x000D     font-family Arial  x000D    x000D   lt script src  https   ajax googleapis com ajax libs jquery 2 1 1 jquery min js  gt  lt  script gt  x000D   lt input type  number  class  answers number    gt  x000D   lt div id  number box  gt  x000D   lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

Why not using just css     lt div id  wrapper  gt     lt input onkeyup  keyup event   gt     lt div id  ghost  gt  lt  div gt   lt  div gt     x000D   x000D  function keyup e    x000D   document getElementById  ghost   innerText   e target value  x000D    x000D   wrapper   x000D    position  relative  x000D    min-width  30px  x000D    display  inline-block  x000D    x000D   x000D  input   x000D    position  absolute  x000D    left 0  x000D    right 0  x000D    border 1px solid blue  x000D    width  100   x000D    x000D   x000D   ghost   x000D    color  transparent  x000D    x000D   lt div id  wrapper  gt  x000D     lt input onkeyup  keyup event   gt  x000D     lt div id  ghost  gt  lt  div gt  x000D   lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    wrapper     position  relative    min-width  30px    border  1px solid red    display  inline-block     input     position  absolute    left 0    right 0    width  100       ghost     color  transparent      this code was introduced by  Iain Todd to and I thought I should share it

User · Answer

You can set an input s width using the size attribute as well   The size of an input determines it s width in characters   An input could dynamically adjust it s size by listening for key events   For example     input type  text     bind  keyup   function            this  attr  size     this  val   length          JsFiddle here

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This answer provides one of the most accurate methods of retrieving text width available in the browser and is more accurate than the accepted answer  It uses the canvas html5 element and unlike other answers does not add the element into the DOM and thus avoids any reflow issues caused by excessively adding elements to the DOM   Read more about the Canvas element here in relation to text width      NOTE  According to MDN  the shorthand versions of the getPropertyValue   method such as font can be unreliable  I d recommend getting the values singularly to improve compatibility  I only used it here for speed     x000D   x000D      x000D     returns the width of child text of any DOM node as a float x000D      x000D  function getTextWidth el    x000D       uses a cached canvas if available x000D    var canvas   getTextWidth canvas     getTextWidth canvas   document createElement  canvas     x000D    var context   canvas getContext  2d    x000D       get the full font style property x000D    var font   window getComputedStyle el  null  getPropertyValue  font    x000D    var text   el value  x000D       set the font attr for the canvas text x000D    context font   font  x000D    var textMeasurement   context measureText text   x000D    return textMeasurement width  x000D    x000D   x000D  var input   document getElementById  myInput    x000D     listen for any input on the input field x000D  input addEventListener  input   function e    x000D    var width   Math floor getTextWidth e target    x000D       add 10 px to pad the input  x000D    var widthInPx    width   10     px   x000D    e target style width   widthInPx  x000D     false   x000D   myInput   x000D    font  normal normal 400 normal 18px   normal Roboto  sans-serif  x000D    min-width  40px  x000D    x000D   lt input id  myInput    gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

Here is a solution without monospaced font needed  with only a very small piece code of javascript  does not need to calculate computed styles  and even supports IME  supports RTL text   x000D   x000D     copy the text from input to the span       function                input   on  input   function          text   text     input   val                 x000D                box-sizing  border-box                  container         display  inline-block        position  relative                  input       text         margin  0        padding  2px 10px        font-size  24px        line-height  32px        border  1px solid  ccc        box-radius  3px        height  36px        font  20px 20px sans-serif           font  they should use same font                 text         padding-right  20px        display  inline-block        visibility  hidden        white-space  pre                  input         position  absolute        top  0        left  0        right  0        bottom  0        width  100              x000D   lt script src  https   code jquery com jquery-3 2 0 min js  gt  lt  script gt    lt div class  container  gt     lt span class  text  gt      some text    lt  span gt     lt input class  input  value  some text    gt   lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D   Use the span text to fit width of text  and let the input have same size with it by position  absolute to the container  Copy value of input to the span every time it changes  you may change this piece of code to vanilla JS easily  or use features provided by your frontend framework   So the input will just fit the size of its content

User · Answer

To calculate the width of the current input  you ll have to embed it in a temporary span element  attach that thing to the DOM  get the computed width  in pixels  using the scrollWidth property and remove the span again  Of course you ll have to ensure that the same font family  font size  etc   is used in the input as well as in the span element  Therefore I assigned the same class to them   I attached the function to the keyup event  as on keypress the input character is not yet added to the input value  so that will result in the wrong width  Unfortunately  I don t know how to get rid of the scrolling of the input field  when adding characters to the end of the field   it scrolls  because the character is added and shown before adjustWidthOfInput   is called  And  as said  I can t do this the other way round because then you ll have the value of the input field before the pressed character is inserted  I ll try to solve this issue later   BTW  I only tested this in Firefox  3 6 8   but you ll get the point  I hope    lt  DOCTYPE html gt   lt html gt     lt head gt       lt meta charset  utf-8  gt       lt title gt Get set width of  amp lt input amp gt  lt  title gt       lt style gt        body           background   666                  input-element           border  0          padding  2px          background   fff          font  12pt sans-serif                  tmp-element           visibility  hidden          white-space  pre               lt  style gt     lt  head gt     lt body gt       lt input id  theInput  type  text  class  input-element  value  1  gt       lt script gt        var inputEl   document getElementById  theInput           function getWidthOfInput             var tmp   document createElement  span            tmp className    input-element tmp-element           tmp innerHTML   inputEl value replace   amp  g   amp amp    replace   lt  g   amp lt    replace   gt  g   amp gt             document body appendChild tmp           var theWidth   tmp getBoundingClientRect   width          document body removeChild tmp           return theWidth                 function adjustWidthOfInput             inputEl style width   getWidthOfInput      px                  adjustWidthOfInput          inputEl onkeyup   adjustWidthOfInput       lt  script gt     lt  body gt   lt  html gt

User · Answer

This is an Angular-specific answer  but this worked for me and has been very satisfying in terms of its simplicity and ease-of-use    lt input  style width ch   value length    ngModel    value    gt    It automatically updates via the character units in Jani s answer

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It s worth noting that a nice-looking resize can be done when the font is monospaced  so we can perfectly resize the input element using the ch unit   Also in this approach we can update the width of the field by just updating a CSS variable  custom property  on input event and we should also take care of already pre-filled input on DOMContentLoaded event     Codepen demo     Markup   lt input type  text  value  space mono font  class  selfadapt    gt    CSS   root   --size  0      selfadapt      padding  5px     min-width  10ch     font-family   space mono      font-size  1 5rem     width  calc var --size    1ch       As a root variable we set --size  0  this variable will contain the length of the input and it will be multiplied by 1ch inside the calc   expression  By default we could also set a min-width  e g  10ch  The Javascript part reads the length of the value inserted and updates the variable --size   JS  let input   document querySelector   selfadapt    let root    document documentElement style      on input event auto resize the field    input addEventListener  input   function        root setProperty  --size   this value length            resize the field if it is pre-populated    document addEventListener  DOMContentLoaded   function        root setProperty  --size   input value length         of course this still works even if you don t use monospaced font  but in that case you will need to change the calc   formula by multiplying the --size variable by another value  which it s strictly dependent on the font-family and font-size  different than 1ch

User · Answer

If you use Bootstrap  it could be done very easily    lt div contenteditable  true  class  form-control  style  display  inline  gt  lt  div gt   You will just need to fetch div s content and put it in a hidden input before submitting the form

User · Answer

I think you re misinterpreting the min-width CSS property  min-width is generally used to define a minimum DOM width in a fluid layout  like   input     width  30     min-width  200px      That would set the input element to a minimum width of 200 pixels  In this context   px  stands for  pixels    Now  if you re trying to check to make sure that input field contains at least one character when a user submits it  you ll need to do some form validation with JavaScript and PHP  If that is indeed what you re attempting to do  I ll edit this answer and do my best to help you out

User · Answer

You can just set size attribute  If you re using one of reactive frameworks  the following will be enough   lt input size  quot    yourValue length    quot   value   quot yourValue quot    gt   but if you re using pure js  you should set event handlers  like   lt input oninput  quot this setAttribute  size   this value length  quot    gt

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You could do something like this     HTML  lt input id  input  type  text  style  width 3px    gt     jQuery   function          input   keyup function            lt span id  width  gt    append    this  val     appendTo  body          this  width      width   width     2            width   remove

User · Answer

Just adding on top of other answers    I noticed that nowadays in some browsers the input field has a scrollWidth  Which means    this style width   this scrollWidth    px     should work nicely  tested in chrome  firefox and safari    For deletion support  you can add   0  first and then readjust    this style width   0  this style width   this scrollWidth    px

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Here is a plain JS and a jQuery plugin I wrote that will handle resizing an input element using a canvas and the font size   family to determine the actual string length when rendered   only works in   IE9  chrome  safari  firefox  opera and most other major browsers that have implemented the canvas element    PlainJS   function autoSize input  o        o     o            o on     o on    keyup         var canvas   document createElement  canvas        canvas setAttribute  style    position  absolute  left  -9999px        document body appendChild canvas        var ctx   canvas getContext  2d         input addEventListener o on  function              ctx font   getComputedStyle this null  getPropertyValue  font            this style width   ctx measureText this value         width    px                Usage autoSize document getElementById  my-input       jQuery Plugin     fn autoSize   function o      o     extend           on   keyup       o      var  canvas       lt canvas  gt    css  position   absolute   left  -9999         body   append  canvas      var ctx    canvas 0  getContext  2d       return this on o on  function        var  this     this       ctx font    this css  font         this width ctx measureText  this val    width    px              Usage      my-input   autoSize      Note  this will not handle text-transforms  line spacing and letter spacing  and probably some other text size changing properties  To handle text-transform property set and adjust the text value to match that property  The others are probably fairly straight forward  I will implement if this starts gaining some traction

User · Answer

You would like to change the size attribute as the text changes    react  const resizeInput    e    gt      e target setAttribute  size   e target value length    1       lt input    onChange  resizeInput    size   propertyInput current  amp  amp  propertyInput current value length     1    ref  propertyInput     gt

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Better is onvalue    lt input id  txt  type  text  onvalue  this style width     this value length   1    8     px    gt    It also involves pasting  dragging and dropping  etc

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Based off  Michael s answer  I have created my own version of this using jQuery  I think it is a cleaner shorter version of most answers here and it seems to get the job done   I am doing the same thing as most of the people here by using a span to write the input text into then getting the width  Then I am setting the width when the actions keyup and blur are called   Here is a working codepen  This codepen shows how this can be used with multiple input fields   HTML Structure    lt input type  text  class  plain-field  placeholder  Full Name  gt   lt span style  display  none   gt  lt  span gt    jQuery   function resizeInputs  text        var text    text val   replace   s  g                placeholder    text attr  placeholder            span    text next  span            span text placeholder       var width   span width         if text                   span text text       var width   span width                text css  width   width   5        The function above gets the inputs value  trims the extra spaces and sets the text into the span to get the width  If there is no text  it instead gets the placeholder and enters that into the span instead  Once it enters the text into the span it then sets the width of the input  The   5 on the width is because without that the input gets cut off a tiny bit in the Edge Browser       plain-field   each function         var  text     this       resizeInputs  text            plain-field   on  keyup blur   function         var  text     this       resizeInputs  text            plain-field   on  blur   function         var  text     this  val   replace   s  g              this  val  text         If this could be improved please let me know as this is the cleanest solution I could come up with

User · Answer

In modern browser versions  CSS unit ch is also available  To my understanding  it is font-independent unit  where 1ch equals to width of character 0  zero  in any given font   Thus  something as simple as  following could be used as resize function    x000D   x000D  var input   document querySelector  input       get the input element x000D  input addEventListener  input   resizeInput      bind the  resizeInput  callback on  input  event x000D  resizeInput call input      immediately call the function x000D   x000D  function resizeInput     x000D    this style width   this value length    ch   x000D    x000D  input  font-size 1 3em  padding  5em    x000D   lt input gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    That example would resize  elem  to length of the value   2 characters extra

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You can do it even simpler in angularjs using the built-in ng-style directive   In your html      lt input ng-style  inputStyle testdata   ng-model  testdata    gt    In your controller     scope testdata    whatever      scope inputStyle   function str        var charWidth   7      return    width    str length  1    charWidth    px              In your css   input   font-family monospace  font-size 12px      Adjust the charWidth to match the width of your font  It seems to be 7 at a font-size of 12px

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I just spend some time figuring out how to do it  Actually the simplest way I found is to move input value to span just before the input  keeping input 1 symbol width  Though I can t be sure that it fit for your initial need  Maybe it some extra code  but in react flux based application it is quite natural solution

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Here is an alternative way to solve this using a DIV and the  contenteditable  property   HTML    lt div contenteditable    true  class    fluidInput  data-placeholder      gt  lt  div gt    CSS   to give the DIV some dimensions and make it easier to see    fluidInput        display           inline-block      vertical-align    top       min-width         1em      height            1 5em       font-family       Arial  Helvetica  sans-serif      font-size         0 8em      line-height       1 5em       padding           0px 2px 0px 2px      border            1px solid  aaa      cursor            text       fluidInput          display           inline        fluidInput br         display           none        fluidInput empty before        content           attr data-placeholder       color              ccc       Note  If you are planning on using this inside of a FORM element that you plan to submit  you will need to use Javascript   jQuery to catch the submit event so that you can parse the  value     innerHTML or  html   respectively  of the DIV

User · Answer

The best solution is  lt input     size  input value length    gt

User · Answer

A bullet-proof  generic way has to   Take into account all possible styles of the measured input element Be able to apply the measurement on any input without modifying the HTML or  Codepen demo  x000D   x000D  var getInputValueWidth    function         https   stackoverflow com a 49982135 104380   function copyNodeStyle sourceNode  targetNode        var computedStyle   window getComputedStyle sourceNode       Array from computedStyle  forEach key   gt  targetNode style setProperty key  computedStyle getPropertyValue key   computedStyle getPropertyPriority key             function createInputMeassureElm  inputelm           create a dummy input element for measurements     var meassureElm   document createElement  span           copy the read input s styles to the dummy input     copyNodeStyle inputelm  meassureElm               set hard-coded styles needed for propper meassuring      meassureElm style width    auto       meassureElm style position    absolute       meassureElm style left    -9999px       meassureElm style top    -9999px       meassureElm style whiteSpace    pre            meassureElm textContent   inputelm value                    add the meassure element to the body     document body appendChild meassureElm            return meassureElm           return function        return createInputMeassureElm this  offsetWidth                 delegated event binding document body addEventListener  input   onInputDelegate   function onInputDelegate e     if  e target classList contains  autoSize         e target style width   getInputValueWidth call e target     px     x000D  input     font-size 1 3em     padding 5px     margin-bottom  1em     input type2    font-size  2 5em    letter-spacing  4px    font-style  italic    x000D   lt input class  autoSize  value  type something  gt   lt br gt   lt input class  autoSize type2  value  here too  gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

[javascript] Adjust width of input field to its input

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