CSS grid: place items in "at least column 2"

Question

I have the following HTML:

.special-1 is always in the first column. The number of .special-2s is variable, generated by user data. So approximately:

.grid {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
  grid-auto-rows: 1fr;
}

.special-1 {
  grid-column-start: 1;
}

Now the thing is, I want .special-2 to always be in at least the second column. But it can also show in the third or fourth. Is there anyway I can do this? grid-column-start: 2; doesn't work because it will put all of them in column 2 and none in the other columns. So I basically want grid-column: :not(1) or grid-column: 2 | 3 | 4 if you know what I mean. Any ideas?

user_8620333 · Answer

You can approximate it like below. However, the order may not be like want.

.grid {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr); /* only 3 explicit clumns */
  grid-auto-columns: 1fr; /* this will size the implicit one */
  grid-auto-flow: dense; /* make sure to fill all the tracks */
  grid-auto-rows: 100px;
  grid-gap: 5px;
}
.special-2 {
  background: red;
}
.special-1 {
  /* place the  #1 outside the explict column
     it will create an implicit column at the start 
  */
  grid-column-end: -4; 
  background: blue;
}
/* place all the #2 in the implicit columns 
   pay attention to the order, they can be scrambled 
*/
.special-2:nth-child(3n+1) {grid-column:1}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+2) {grid-column:2}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+3) {grid-column:3}

The above will make only 3 columns if there is no element special-1

.grid {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr); /* only 3 explicit clumns */
  grid-auto-columns: 1fr; /* this will size the implicit one */
  grid-auto-flow: dense; /* make sure to fill all the tracks */
  grid-auto-rows: 100px;
  grid-gap: 5px;
}
.special-2 {
  background: red;
}
.special-1 {
  /* place the  #1 outside the explict column
     it will create an implicit column at the start 
  */
  grid-column-end: -4; 
  background: blue;
}
/* place all the #2 in the implicit columns 
   pay attention to the order, they can be scrambled 
*/
.special-2:nth-child(3n+1) {grid-column:1}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+2) {grid-column:2}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+3) {grid-column:3}

Use the below if you will always have element special-1

.grid {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
  grid-auto-flow: dense; 
  grid-auto-rows: 100px;
  grid-gap: 5px;
}
.special-2 {
  background: red;
}
.special-1 {
  grid-column: 1; 
  background: blue;
}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+1) {grid-column:2}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+2) {grid-column:3}
.special-2:nth-child(3n+3) {grid-column:4}

user_2570556 · Answer

The answer by Temani Afif surely works, but isn't very scalable. In my usecase there's some different column counts for different viewport sizes. I eventually decided to implement this differently. Note: if by the time you read this CSS Grid Level 2 has been released, this could trivially be solved using css subgrid: caniuse

Now for my solution: I changed my html as such:

And my css now looks somewhat like below. I forced the rows to a fixed height, which was okay in my use case and made this solution possible.

.grid {
  display: flex;
}

.grid > div {
  display: grid;
  grid-auto-rows: 100px;
}

.special-1s {
  flex: 1;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr;
}

.special-2s {
  --columns: 2;
  flex: var(--columns);
  grid-template-columns: repeat(var(--columns), 1fr);

  @media (min-width: 1000px) {
    --columns: 3;
  }

}

By using the flex-property, I can fake consistent column-sizes across the width of .grid. The --columns property allows me to easily define extra media-queries. (I actually have a few more than shown here.)

CSS grid: place items in "at least column 2"

2 Answers