In JavaScript, what causes the gap between divs in the regular flow of a webpage?

Question

In JavaScript, what causes the gap between divs in the regular flow of a webpage?

My goal was to align two divs next to each other within a container div, but for some reason the second div ended up below the first with a 4 pixel gap in between. Despite setting margins, padding, and borders to 0px, this gap persisted. Here's the code snippet:

<div id='container' width='300'>
  <div id='left' width='150'></div>
  <div id='right' width='150'></div>
</div>

I'm aware that using float could solve the issue, but I'm curious about the root cause of this spacing.

You can view the JSFiddle example here.

I've also encountered discrepancies when retrieving the width() of an element compared to the values seen in the debug window. Any insights on why this might be happening?

Thank you!

Edit: After further investigation, it seems that the space between the divs is due to a newline character. Interestingly, changing the display property of the container to 'flex' resolved the issue.

(Appreciate the tips on eliminating whitespace between divs, even though my reputation doesn't allow me to upvote yet!)

javascript html css width

Answer 1

Answer №1

Contrast:

<div>
  cat
  dog
</div>

versus:

<div>
  catdog
</div>

When elements have the CSS property display: inline-block, they are rendered as text.

The reason for the space between them is due to being inline elements with white space characters separating them in the code.

To showcase this, position the opening tag of the second div immediately after the closing tag of the first one, without adding any spaces, tabs, or line breaks in between.

Answer 2

Contrast:

<div>
  cat
  dog
</div>

versus:

<div>
  catdog
</div>

When elements have the CSS property display: inline-block, they are rendered as text.

The reason for the space between them is due to being inline elements with white space characters separating them in the code.

To showcase this, position the opening tag of the second div immediately after the closing tag of the first one, without adding any spaces, tabs, or line breaks in between.

Answer 3

Answer №2

One issue that arises with inline/inline-block elements is that they respect white spaces, including new line characters, and take up space. To resolve this problem, simply eliminate all white spaces between elements:

<div id='container'>
    <div id='left'>&nbsp;</div><div id='right'>&nbsp;</div>
</div>

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/za2uu8ze/2/

Manually (or programmatically) removing spaces between tags may not be the most elegant solution. Unfortunately, there is no straightforward CSS property to ignore these spaces. However, you can set font-size: 0 on the wrapping container level and then reset it to the desired font size on the individual elements. This effectively reduces the white spaces to a size of 0:

#container {
    /* ... */
    font-size: 0;
}
#container > * {
    font-size: 16px;
}

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/za2uu8ze/3/

Answer 4

One issue that arises with inline/inline-block elements is that they respect white spaces, including new line characters, and take up space. To resolve this problem, simply eliminate all white spaces between elements:

<div id='container'>
    <div id='left'>&nbsp;</div><div id='right'>&nbsp;</div>
</div>

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/za2uu8ze/2/

Manually (or programmatically) removing spaces between tags may not be the most elegant solution. Unfortunately, there is no straightforward CSS property to ignore these spaces. However, you can set font-size: 0 on the wrapping container level and then reset it to the desired font size on the individual elements. This effectively reduces the white spaces to a size of 0:

#container {
    /* ... */
    font-size: 0;
}
#container > * {
    font-size: 16px;
}

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/za2uu8ze/3/

Answer 5

Answer №3

One of the reasons for this issue could be the use of inline-block element:

A possible solution is to structure your HTML like this:

<div id='container'>
    <div id='left'>&nbsp;</div><div id='right'>&nbsp;</div>
</div>

Alternatively, you can also try the following approach:

<div id='container'>
    <div id='left'>&nbsp;</div><!--
 --><div id='right'>&nbsp;</div>
</div>

Answer 6

One of the reasons for this issue could be the use of inline-block element:

A possible solution is to structure your HTML like this:

<div id='container'>
    <div id='left'>&nbsp;</div><div id='right'>&nbsp;</div>
</div>

Alternatively, you can also try the following approach:

<div id='container'>
    <div id='left'>&nbsp;</div><!--
 --><div id='right'>&nbsp;</div>
</div>

In JavaScript, what causes the gap between divs in the regular flow of a webpage?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/za2uu8ze/2/

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/za2uu8ze/3/

Answer №3

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