Working with Flexboxes in CSS
As you know, there is a property justify-content, which aligns elements along the main axis.
There is also the align-items property, which aligns items along the cross axis. Let's play with it a bit.
Let's assume that our blocks are now lined up in a row, i.e. the transverse axis is directed downwards. Using align-items, we'll center these blocks:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-items: center;
width: 300px;
height: 300px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
Let's now add more blocks, add multi-line with flex-wrap, increase the parent height from 300px to 500px and see how align-items works in this multi-line case:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-items: center;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
As we can see, something is not centered very well. It is as if each row is centered on its own in its designated place. Let's make it so that all the rows as a whole become centered on the parent.
To do this, you should use the align-content property, which is needed for multi-line text. Let's rewrite our code:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-content: center;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
The align-content property accepts the same values as align-items .
The meaning of space-between
Let's look at the value of space-between as an example. Let's set the parent's height to 320px. Since we have three rows, and accordingly two distances between rows, these distances will each be equal to 10px:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-content: space-between;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 320px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
The meaning of stretch
Let's try a value of stretch. To do this, we'll remove the height from the children, and set the parent's height to 600px for a more obvious effect.
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-content: stretch;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 600px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
The stretch value for align-content is the default value. If we remove the height of the children completely, remove the align-content property, but leave the height of the parent and flex-wrap - everything will work the same:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 600px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
But if you remove flex-wrap, everything will become single-line:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
width: 300px;
height: 600px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
Let's flip the axis
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
<div class="child">4</div>
<div class="child">5</div>
<div class="child">6</div>
<div class="child">7</div>
<div class="child">8</div>
<div class="child">9</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-content: center;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
Special conditions
Without flex-wrap: wrap nothing works, let's say we have one line:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-content: center;
flex-wrap: wrap;
width: 300px;
height: 320px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
Remove flex-wrap: wrap - align-content: center will stop working:
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">1</div>
<div class="child">2</div>
<div class="child">3</div>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-content: center;
width: 300px;
height: 320px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.child {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid green;
}
:
