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Question

How to get Floating DIVs inside fixed-width DIV to continue horizontally?

Answer 1

A:

Use:

    div#container {
        overflow: auto;
    }

Or add a clearing div below the three divs with the style:

    {
        clear: both
    }

Rony 2009-06-19 00:03:31

Answer 2

A:

Put the divs you want to scroll in a table like so:

<div style='width:1000;border:2 solid red;overflow-x:auto'>
   <table><tr>
      <td><div style='width:300;height:200;border:1 solid black'>Cell 1&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div style='width:300;height:200;border:1 solid black'>Cell 2&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div style='width:300;height:200;border:1 solid black'>Cell 3&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div style='width:300;height:200;border:1 solid black'>Cell 4&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div style='width:300;height:200;border:1 solid black'>Cell 5&nbsp;</div></td>
   </tr></table>
</div>

Ron

Edit: I tried 3 of these suggested solutions - they all work fine in Google Chrome - but the first one (container1) doesn't work in IE (go figure) - so the SPAN solution gets my vote :-) :

<html>
<body>
<style>
div#container1 
   {
   height: 275px;
   width: 100%;
   overflow: auto;
   white-space: nowrap;
   border:2 solid red;
   }

div#container1 div.block 
   {
   width: 300px;
   height: 200px;
   display: inline-block;
   border: 1 solid black;
   }

div#container2 
   {
   height: 275px;
   width: 100%;
   overflow: auto;
   white-space: nowrap;
   border:2 solid red;
   }

div#container2 span.block 
   {
   width: 300px;
   height: 200px;
   display: inline-block;
   border: 1 solid black;
   }

div#container3 
   {
   height: 275px;
   width: 100%;
   overflow: auto;
   white-space: nowrap;
   border:2 solid red;
   }

div#container3 div.block 
   {
   width: 300px;
   height: 200px;
   display: inline-block;
   border: 1 solid black;
   }

</style>
<p>
<div id='container1'>
      <div class='block'>Cell 1&nbsp;</div>
      <div class='block'>Cell 2&nbsp;</div>
      <div class='block'>Cell 3&nbsp;</div>
      <div class='block'>Cell 4&nbsp;</div>
      <div class='block'>Cell 5&nbsp;</div>
</div>
<p>
<div id='container2'>
      <span class='block'>Cell 1&nbsp;</span>
      <span class='block'>Cell 2&nbsp;</span>
      <span class='block'>Cell 3&nbsp;</span>
      <span class='block'>Cell 4&nbsp;</span>
      <span class='block'>Cell 5&nbsp;</span>
</div>
<p>
<div id='container3'>
   <table><tr>
      <td><div class='block'>Cell 1&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div class='block'>Cell 2&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div class='block'>Cell 3&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div class='block'>Cell 4&nbsp;</div></td>
      <td><div class='block'>Cell 5&nbsp;</div></td>
   </tr></table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Edit 2:

I ran this test page through browsershots.org, to see how different browsers handle it. Conclusion: Browser compatibility sucks. :-)

http://browsershots.org/http://dot-dash-dot.com/files/test_div2.htm

The table solution worked more often - but the span option (which is cleaner) only broke on browsers I've never heard of. :-)

Ron Savage 2009-06-19 00:13:16

Down voted for suggesting tables.

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-19 00:43:23

@Matthew James Taylor: That's just stupid, you don't know if a table solution is or isn't appropriate because the contents of the divs / cells are not known to us.

jeroen 2009-06-19 14:46:29

Answer 3

A:

The table solution should work very well.

If you don't want to use tables, you can also put all .block divs in another div inside the #container and give that "in-between-div" a fixed - calculated - width using javascript after loading the page.

Of course if you already know how many .blocks you have / if the number is fixed, you can give the "in-between-div" a fixed width using css.

jeroen 2009-06-19 00:18:53

Down voted for suggesting tables. It's not 1995!

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-19 00:42:40

That's just stupid, you don't know if a table solution is or isn't appropriate because the contents of the divs / cells are not known to us.

jeroen 2009-06-19 14:45:38

Matt's original question stated that he wanted 'multiple floated divs' so a table solution is most probably not suitable.

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-23 11:54:23

True, which is why I suggested a css / javascript solution. My comment about tables merely refered to Ron Savage's solution which will work always but uses tables.

jeroen 2009-06-23 15:33:59

Answer 4

+3 A:

div#container {
    height: 275px;
    width: 1000px;
    overflow: auto;
    white-space: nowrap;
}

div#container span.block {
    width: 300px;
    display: inline-block;
}

The trick here is only elements that behave as inline by default will behave properly when set to inline-block in Internet Explorer, so the inner containers need to be <span> instead of <div>.

pd 2009-06-19 00:23:48

Inline-block is not supported by all browsers so it should never be used.

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-19 00:42:00

It's quite well supported, actually, as long as you're aware of the one issue with IE 6/7. It won't work in IE 5.5 or FF 2, but neither of those represent anything close to a significant share of users these days.

pd 2009-06-19 02:20:09

Answer 5

A:

Wrap your floated divs in another div with the wider width.

<div style="width:230px;overflow-x:auto;background-color:#ccc;">
    <div style="width:400px">
     <div style="height:100px;width:100px;float:left;border:1px solid #000;"></div>
     <div style="height:100px;width:100px;float:left;border:1px solid #000;"></div>
     <div style="height:100px;width:100px;float:left;border:1px solid #000;"></div>
    </div>
</div>

Emily 2009-06-19 00:39:20

Answer 6

A:

You need an extra div with a large width to contain the blocks, then they will extend wider than the container div and not drop down to a new line.

The HTML:

<div id="container>
    <div id="width">
        <div class="block">
            <!-- contents of block -->
        </div>
        <div class="block">
            <!-- contents of block -->
        </div>
        <div class="block">
            <!-- contents of block -->
        </div>
        <!-- more blocks here -->
    </div>
</div>

The CSS:

#container {
    height: 275px;
    width: 1000px;
    overflow-x: auto;
    overflow-y: hidden;
    max-height: 275px;
}
#container #width {
    width:2000px; /* make this the width you need for x number of blocks */
}
#container div.block {
    float: left;
    margin: 3px 90px 0 3px;
}

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-19 00:41:32

Hey it's Matthew James Taylor! I find your site a very useful resource. And good answer +1

alex 2009-06-19 00:43:52

Down voted because the SPAN solution works better and for an unlimited number of inner blocks - don't need to know an estimated width.

Ron Savage 2009-06-19 01:08:53

Downvoted because you basically just copied my solution without the javascript addition in case the number of blocks is unknown.

jeroen 2009-06-19 14:50:07

@Ron you may be right, a span version could be best except it may not be valid HTML to put block-level elements inside inline elements. See this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/746531/is-it-wrong-to-change-a-block-element-to-inline-with-css-if-it-contains-another-b

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-23 12:25:36

@Alex it's good to see a fellow Aussie on here! Thanks for the upvote ;)

Matthew James Taylor 2009-06-23 12:48:04

@Matthew James Taylor No one is recommending a solution that uses a block element inside an inline element.

pd 2009-06-24 23:29:32

Answer 7

A:

It sounds like you are doing gallery with div's?

What exactly are you using the divs for?

It may be easier to use a ul/li with spans inside of the li to get the same effect without all the headaches of floating divs.

SkyLar 2009-06-19 03:00:17

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How to get Floating DIVs inside fixed-width DIV to continue horizontally?

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