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CSS•CSS Foundations

CSS overflow-x and overflow-y

Overflow in Specific Directions

The overflow-x and overflow-y properties allow you to control overflow behavior independently for horizontal and vertical directions.

CSS overflow-x and overflow-y

The overflow-x and overflow-y properties specifies whether to change the overflow of content just horizontally or vertically (or both):

  • overflow-x specifies what to do with the left/right edges of the content.
  • overflow-y specifies what to do with the top/bottom edges of the content.

Example

Formatted code
div {
  overflow-x: hidden; /* Hide horizontal scrollbar
  */
  overflow-y: scroll; /* Add vertical scrollbar */
}

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Common Use Cases

These properties are useful when you need different scroll behavior for horizontal and vertical content:

  • Horizontal scrolling table - Use overflow-x: auto for wide tables
  • Chat windows - Use overflow-y: scroll for vertical message scrolling
  • Code blocks - Use overflow-x: auto to handle long lines

Example

Formatted code
div {
  overflow-x: scroll;
  overflow-y: hidden;
}

Live preview

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