The Flexible Box Module, usually referred to as flexbox, was designed as a one-dimensional layout model, and as a method that could offer space distribution between items in an interface and powerful alignment capabilities. This article gives an outline of the main features of flexbox, which we will be exploring in more detail in the rest of these guides.

When we describe flexbox as being one dimensional we are describing the fact that flexbox deals with layout in one dimension at a time — either as a row or as a column. This can be contrasted with the two-dimensional model of CSS Grid Layout, which controls columns and rows together.

When working with flexbox you need to think in terms of two axes — the main axis and the cross axis. The main axis is defined by the flex-direction property, and the cross axis runs perpendicular to it. Everything we do with flexbox refers back to these axes, so it is worth understanding how they work from the outset.

An area of a document laid out using flexbox is called a flex container. To create a flex container, we set the value of the area's container's display property to flex or inline-flex. As soon as we do this the direct children of that container become flex items. As with all properties in CSS, some initial values are defined, so when creating a flex container all of the contained flex items will behave in the following way.

• Items display in a row (the flex-direction property's default is row).
• The items start from the start edge of the main axis.
• The items do not stretch on the main dimension, but can shrink.
• The items will stretch to fill the size of the cross axis.
• The flex-basis property is set to auto.
• The flex-wrap property is set to nowrap.

The result of this is that your items will all line up in a row, using the size of the content as their size in the main axis. If there are more items than can fit in the container, they will not wrap but will instead overflow. If some items are taller than others, all items will stretch along the cross axis to fill its full size.

Changing flex-direction

Adding the flex-direction property to the flex container allows us to change the direction in which our flex items display. Setting flex-direction: row-reverse will keep the items displaying along the row, however the start and end lines are switched.

If we change flex-direction to column the main axis switches and our items now display in a column. Set column-reverse and the start and end lines are again switched.

The live example below has flex-direction set to row-reverse. Try the other values — row, column and column-reverse — to see what happens to the content.

To have more control over flex items we can target them directly. We do this by way of three properties:

• flex-grow
• flex-shrink
• flex-basis

Flex-grow

With the flex-grow property set to a positive integer, flex items can grow along the main axis from their flex-basis. This will cause the item to stretch and take up any available space on that axis, or a proportion of the available space if other items are allowed to grow too.

If we gave all of our items in the example above a flex-grow value of 1 then the available space in the flex container would be equally shared between our items and they would stretch to fill the container on the main axis.

The flex-grow property can be used to distribute space in proportion. If we give our first item a flex-grow value of 2, and the other items a value of 1 each, 2 parts of the available space will be given to the first item (100px out of 200px in the case of the example above), 1 part each the other two (50px each out of the 200px total).

Flex basis

The flex-basis is what defines the size of that item in terms of the space it leaves as available space. The initial value of this property is auto — in this case the browser looks to see if the items have a size. In the example above, all of the items have a width of 100 pixels and so this is used as the flex-basis.

If the items don’t have a size then the content's size is used as the flex-basis. This is why when we just declare display: flex on the parent to create flex items, the items all move into a row and take only as much space as they need to display their contents.

flex-grow

With the flex-grow property set to a positive integer, flex items can grow along the main axis from their flex-basis. This will cause the item to stretch and take up any available space on that axis, or a proportion of the available space if other items are allowed to grow too.

If we gave all of our items in the example above a flex-grow value of 1 then the available space in the flex container would be equally shared between our items and they would stretch to fill the container on the main axis.

The flex-grow property can be used to distribute space in proportion. If we give our first item a flex-grow value of 2, and the other items a value of 1 each, 2 parts of the available space will be given to the first item (100px out of 200px in the case of the example above), 1 part each the other two (50px each out of the 200px total).

flex-shrink

Where the flex-grow property deals with adding space in the main axis, the flex-shrink property controls how it is taken away. If we do not have enough space in the container to lay out our items, and flex-shrink is set to a positive integer, then the item can become smaller than the flex-basis. As with flex-grow, different values can be assigned in order to cause one item to shrink faster than others — an item with a higher value set for flex-shrink will shrink faster than its siblings that have lower values.

The minimum size of the item will be taken into account while working out the actual amount of shrinkage that will happen, which means that flex-shrink has the potential to appear less consistent than flex-grow in behavior. We’ll therefore take a more detailed look at how this algorithm works in the article Controlling Ratios of items along the main axis.

You will very rarely see the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis properties used individually; instead they are combined into the flex shorthand. The flex shorthand allows you to set the three values in this order — flex-grow, flex-shrink, flex-basis.

he live example below allows you to test out the different values of the flex shorthand; remember that the first value is flex-grow. Giving this a positive value means the item can grow. The second is flex-shrink — with a positive value the items can shrink, but only if their total values overflow the main axis. The final value is flex-basis; this is the value the items are using as their base value to grow and shrink from.

There are also some predefined shorthand values which cover most of the use cases. You will often see these used in tutorials, and in many cases these are all you will need to use. The predefined values are as follows:

• flex: initial
• flex: auto
• flex: none
• flex: < positive-number>

A key feature of flexbox is the ability to align and justify items on the main- and cross-axes, and to distribute space between flex items. Note that these properties are to be set on the flex container, not on the items themselves.

align-items

The align-items property will align the items on the cross axis.

The initial value for this property is stretch and this is why flex items stretch to the height of the flex container by default. This might be dictated by the height of the tallest item in the container, or by a size set on the flex container itself.

You could instead set align-items to flex-start in order to make the items line up at the start of the flex container, flex-end to align them to the end, or center to align them in the center. Try this in the live example — I have given the flex container a height in order that you can see how the items can be moved around inside the container.

justify-content

The justify-content property is used to align the items on the main axis, the direction in which flex-direction has set the flow. The initial value is flex-start which will line the items up at the start edge of the container, but you could also set the value to flex-end to line them up at the end, or center to line them up in the centre.

You can also use the value space-between to take all the spare space after the items have been laid out, and share it out evenly between the items so there will be an equal amount of space between each item. To cause an equal amount of space on the right and left of each item use the value space-around. With space-around, items have a half-size space on either end. Or, to cause items to have equal space around them use the value space-evenly. With space-evenly, items have a full-size space on either end.

Here are possible values of justify-content:

• flex-start
• flex-end
• center
• space-around
• space-between
• space-evenly

Try the above options in the CSS, for example:

In the article Aligning Items in a Flex Container we will explore these properties in more depth, in order to have a better understanding of how they work. These simple examples however will be useful in the majority of use cases.

All information come from: Developer mozilla website