Position last flex item at the end of container

Question

This question concerns a browser with full css3 support including flexbox.

I have a flex container with some items in it. They are all justified to flex-start but I want the last .end item to be justified to flex-end. Is there a good way to do this without modifying the HTML and without resorting to absolute positioning?

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  outline: 1px solid green;
  min-height: 400px;
  width: 100px;
  justify-content: flex-start;
}
p {
  height: 50px;
  background-color: blue;
  margin: 5px;
}

<div class="container">
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p class="end"></p>
</div>

Yes. See auto margin illustrations here: stackoverflow.com/a/33856609/3597276 — Michael Benjamin
– Michael Benjamin, Commented Nov 25, 2015 at 19:20
Possible duplicate of Align an element to bottom with flexbox — mfluehr
– mfluehr, Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 13:42

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

676

Flexible Box Layout Module - 8.1. Aligning with auto margins

Auto margins on flex items have an effect very similar to auto margins in block flow:

During calculations of flex bases and flexible lengths, auto margins are treated as 0.

Prior to alignment via justify-content and align-self, any positive free space is distributed to auto margins in that dimension.

Therefore you could use margin-top: auto to distribute the space between the other elements and the last element.

This will position the last element at the bottom.

p:last-of-type {
  margin-top: auto;
}

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  border: 1px solid #000;
  min-height: 200px;
  width: 100px;
}
p {
  height: 30px;
  background-color: blue;
  margin: 5px;
}
p:last-of-type {
  margin-top: auto;
}

<div class="container">
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
</div>

Likewise, you can also use margin-left: auto or margin-right: auto for the same alignment horizontally.

p:last-of-type {
  margin-left: auto;
}

.container {
  display: flex;
  width: 100%;
  border: 1px solid #000;
}
p {
  height: 50px;
  width: 50px;
  background-color: blue;
  margin: 5px;
}
p:last-of-type {
  margin-left: auto;
}

<div class="container">
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
</div>

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 25, 2015 at 19:15

Josh Crozier

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12 Comments

George Mauer Over a year ago

ah perfect, can't believe I missed that! Especially embarrassing since I totally know about the using-margin-auto-to-center-vertically trick and use it all the time

Josh Crozier Over a year ago

@j08691 I don't have a formal explanation as to why it works, but it's similar to how you can use margin: 0 auto for horizontal centering. Flexbox items respect the margin, and I believe that margin: auto will essentially position the item with as much space between the sibling as possible. See: w3.org/TR/css-flexbox-1/#auto-margins

George Mauer Over a year ago

@jo8691 if I'm not mistaken, margin: auto on a flex item tells it to create as much space as possible in that direction.

George Mauer Over a year ago

The spec says

Prior to alignment via justify-content and align-self, any positive free space is distributed to auto margins in that dimension.

j08691 Over a year ago

I'm trying to learn more about flexbox so it would be great to see a reference that describes this behavior. Particularly that it's also intended and not a quirk or side effect.

Michael Song Sep 22 at 4:19

You can check out these two MDN articles for an "official" documentation of the behavior. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_box_alignment/… developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Layout_cookbook/…

|

marked-down · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-28 03:19:00Z

111

This flexbox principle also works horizontally

During calculations of flex bases and flexible lengths, auto margins are treated as 0.
Prior to alignment via justify-content and align-self, any positive free space is distributed to auto margins in that dimension.

Setting an automatic left margin for the Last Item will do the work.

.last-item {
  margin-left: auto;
}

Code Example:

.container {
  display: flex;
  width: 400px;
  outline: 1px solid black;
}

p {
  height: 50px;
  width: 50px;
  margin: 5px;
  background-color: blue;
}

.last-item {
  margin-left: auto;
}

<div class="container">
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p></p>
  <p class="last-item"></p>
</div>

Codepen Snippet

This can be very useful for Desktop Footers.

As Envato did here with the company logo.

Codepen Snippet

edited Mar 28, 2019 at 3:19

marked-down

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answered Apr 23, 2017 at 13:55

David Bendahan

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3 Comments

Louis345 Over a year ago

Unsure why this actually works, but it helped me on a project.

Illorian Over a year ago

What if I need that all items will be in center and the last one at the right side?

Marcio Duarte Over a year ago

There's a variation of this but with centered items: stackoverflow.com/a/59405567/2394994

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