Your solution may work perfectly in scenarios where the floating elements are consistently present and have fixed widths. However, if one or both of the elements are missing or if their widths vary, the central element may start shifting positions unpredictably.
Consider a situation where you need to display a multi-line list of values in a table format. If each value is placed in a separate column, the available space may not be utilized efficiently. On the other hand, aligning the elements within a single cell using floating elements may cause the central element to move off-center, as its position is calculated based on the total width, including the floating elements.
HTML:
<table>
<tr><td>1</td><td class="container"><span class="left">left</span><span class="center">center</span><span class="right"></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>2</td><td class="container"><span class="left"></span><span class="center">center</span><span class="right"></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>3</td><td class="container"><span class="left">left</span><span class="center">center</span><span class="right">right</span></td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td><td class="container"><span class="left"></span><span class="center">center</span><span class="right">right</span></td></tr>
</table>
CSS:
.container { width: 400px }
span.left { float: left }
span.center { }
span.right { float: right }
To address this issue, you can try the following approach:
span.center { position: absolute; left: 200px; width: 50% }
However, using absolute positioning may not always be feasible, especially if the table is within a scrollable container. Additionally, if pseudo classes like before and after are used for the floating elements, this solution may also not be viable.
So, what alternative options can we explore in such situations?