CSS Flex Items
The CSS Flex Items
The direct child elements of a flex container automatically becomes flex items.
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The element above represents four blue flex items inside a grey flex container.
Example
<div class="flex-container">
<div>1</div>
<div>2</div>
<div>3</div>
<div>4</div>
</div>
The CSS properties we use for flex items are:
order
flex-grow
flex-shrink
flex-basis
flex
align-self
The order Property
The order
property specifies the order of
the flex items inside the flex container.
The first flex item in the code does not have to appear as the first item in the layout.
The order value must be a number, default value is 0.
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Example
The order property can change the order of the flex items:
<div class="flex-container">
<div style="order: 3">1</div>
<div style="order: 2">2</div>
<div style="order: 4">3</div>
<div style="order: 1">4</div>
</div>
The flex-grow Property
The flex-grow
property specifies how much a flex item will grow relative to the rest of the flex items.
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The value must be a number, default value is 0.
Example
Make the third flex item grow eight times faster than the other flex items:
<div class="flex-container">
<div style="flex-grow: 1">1</div>
<div style="flex-grow: 1">2</div>
<div style="flex-grow:
8">3</div>
</div>
The flex-shrink Property
The flex-shrink
property specifies how much a flex item will shrink relative to the rest of the flex items.
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The value must be a number, default value is 1.
Example
Do not let the third flex item shrink as much as the other flex items:
<div class="flex-container">
<div>1</div>
<div>2</div>
<div style="flex-shrink:
0">3</div>
<div>4</div>
<div>5</div>
<div>6</div>
<div>7</div>
<div>8</div>
<div>9</div>
<div>10</div>
</div>
The flex-basis Property
The flex-basis
property specifies the initial length of a flex item.
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Example
Set the initial length of the third flex item to 200 pixels:
<div class="flex-container">
<div>1</div>
<div>2</div>
<div style="flex-basis: 200px">3</div>
<div>4</div>
</div>
The flex Property
The flex
property is a shorthand property for the
flex-grow
, flex-shrink
, and flex-basis
properties.
Example
Make the third flex item not growable (0), not shrinkable (0), and with an initial length of 200 pixels:
<div class="flex-container">
<div>1</div>
<div>2</div>
<div style="flex:
0 0 200px">3</div>
<div>4</div>
</div>
The align-self Property
The align-self
property specifies the
alignment for the selected item inside the flexible container.
The align-self
property overrides the default alignment set by the
container's align-items
property.
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In these examples we use a 200 pixels high container, to better demonstrate the
align-self
property:
Example
Align the third flex item in the middle of the container:
<div class="flex-container">
<div>1</div>
<div>2</div>
<div style="align-self:
center">3</div>
<div>4</div>
</div>
Example
Align the second flex item at the top of the container, and the third flex item at the bottom of the container:
<div class="flex-container">
<div>1</div>
<div style="align-self:
flex-start">2</div>
<div style="align-self:
flex-end">3</div>
<div>4</div>
</div>
The CSS Flex Items Properties
The following table lists all the CSS Flex Items properties:
Property | Description |
---|---|
align-self | Specifies the alignment for a flex item (overrides the flex container's align-items property) |
flex | A shorthand property for the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and the flex-basis properties |
flex-basis | Specifies the initial length of a flex item |
flex-grow | Specifies how much a flex item will grow relative to the rest of the flex items inside the container |
flex-shrink | Specifies how much a flex item will shrink relative to the rest of the flex items inside the container |
order | Specifies the order of the flex items inside the container |