Could someone please clarify the concept of the flex property for me?

Hey there! I've been diving into flexbox lately and have gone through several tutorials, but I'm still a bit confused about the flex property. Can someone provide more insight and maybe some useful links to clarify its purpose? Thanks a bunch!

Answer №1

In the realm of CSS, T. Evans pointed out that the flex property serves as a shorthand for three separate properties: flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis. By assigning values sequentially to the flex property, you can control each of these properties in the order they appear.

flex: [flex-grow] [flex-shrink] [flex-basis]

For instance, using flex: 0 1 auto;

Now, let’s delve into the definitions of these individual properties.

Flex-grow

This property applies to child elements within a flex container, determining their size relative to other elements. With a default value of 0, increasing flex-grow above 0 enlarges an element compared to its counterparts. It's worth noting that negative values are not permissible.

Example 1: In this scenario, setting one element with a flex-grow of 2 and another with 1 establishes a ratio of 2-to-1 between them. The same effect is achieved by setting one element's flex-grow to 8 and the other to 4 since 2:1 equates to 8:4.

JSFiddle

Example 2: Here, applying flex-grow solely to one element while leaving the other at the default 0 allows the former to expand to occupy available space fully. Any value assigned to flex-grow yields identical results under such circumstances.

JSFiddle

Flex-shrink

Similar to flex-grow, this property determines the differentiation in size among elements when they need to shrink due to limited parent container space. Its default value is 1.

Example: Setting one element's flex-shrink to 2 and others' to 1 causes the former to shrink more significantly than the rest in cramped conditions.

JSFiddle

Flex-basis

Usage of this property outlines the initial dimension of an element. It can be specified as either auto or a numerical magnitude (e.g., pixels, percentages) indicating the starting size. The default is auto.

Example: Applying a common initial size of 50px to most elements alongside a flex-grow of 1 ensures uniform growth, except for an element set with a flex-basis of 100px which elevates its stature over others.

JSFiddle

Merging Everything Together

The consolidated flex property envelops all three attributes, allowing for concise specification. For example, instead of individually setting flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis, they can be unified under flex:

#child {
    flex: 1 2 100px;
}

Answer №2

The concept of Flex Property can be described as a shorthand notation.

Essentially, it is represented like this:

flex: <flex-grow> <flex-shrink> <flex-basis>

This pertains to how elements behave within a container with display: flex...

To delve deeper into this topic, I recommend checking out the following resources:

W3 Schools

CSS Tricks

MDN

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