Floating elements within a div, floats outside of div. Why?

user_349318 0
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Say you have a div, give it a definite width and put elements in it, in my case an img and another div.

The idea is that the content of the container div will cause the container div to stretch out, and be a background for the content. But when I do this, the containing div shrinks to fit the non-floating objects, and the floating objects will be either all the way out, or half out, half in, and not have any bearing on the size of the big div.

Why is this? Is there something I'm missing, and how can I get floated items to stretch out the height of a containing div?

css-float css html
11 Answers

The easiest is to put overflow:hidden on the parent div and don't specify a height:

#parent { overflow: hidden }

Another way is to also float the parent div:

#parent { float: left; width: 100% }

Another way uses a clear element:

<div class="parent">
   <img class="floated_child" src="..." />
   <span class="clear"></span>
</div>

CSS

span.clear { clear: left; display: block; }
user_1520830

There's nothing missing. Float was designed for the case where you want an image (for example) to sit beside several paragraphs of text, so the text flows around the image. That wouldn't happen if the text "stretched" the container. Your first paragraph would end, and then your next paragraph would begin under the image (possibly several hundred pixels below).

And that's why you're getting the result you are.

Lucas_11570

As Lucas says, what you are describing is the intended behaviour for the float property. What confuses many people is that float has been pushed well beyond its original intended usage in order to make up for shortcomings in the CSS layout model.

Have a look at Floatutorial if you'd like to get a better understanding of how this property works.

Sam_Murray-Sutton_29770

You can easily do with first you can make the div flex and apply justify content right or left and your problem is solved.

<div style="display: flex;padding-bottom: 8px;justify-content: flex-end;">
     <button style="font-weight: bold;outline: none;background-color: #2764ff;border-radius: 3px;margin-left: 12px;border: none;padding: 3px 6px;color: white;text-align: center;font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif;text-decoration: none;margin-right: 14px;">Sense</button>
    </div>

user_98873230

The other solutions here didn't work for me—my elements kept getting cut off. But if anyone else comes here using bootstrap, it worked for me to explicitly set the X-axis margins of an intermediary row div to zero and also set justify-content-between:

<div class='container p-2'>
  <div class='row mx-0 justify-content-between'>
    <div class='float-left'></div>
    <div class='float-right'></div>
  </div>
</div>
user_129849130
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