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CSS Flex Items

6 min read

Child Elements (Items) #

The direct child elements of a flex container automatically becomes flexible (flex) items.

 
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The element above represents four blue flex items inside a grey flex container.

<div class="flex-container"> <div>1</div> <div>2</div> <div>3</div> <div>4</div> </div>

The flex item properties are:

  • order
  • flex-grow
  • flex-shrink
  • flex-basis
  • flex
  • align-self

 

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The order Property #

The order property specifies the order of the flex items.

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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.

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-growflex-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 Flexbox Items Properties #

The following table lists all the CSS Flexbox 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 same container
flex-shrink Specifies how much a flex item will shrink relative to the rest of the flex items inside the same container
order Specifies the order of the flex items inside the same container

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