The <div> element is used as a container for other HTML elements.
The <div> Element
The <div> element is by default a block element, meaning that it takes all available width, and comes with line breaks before and after.
Example
Lorem Ipsum <div>I am a div</div>
dolor sit amet.Live preview
The <div> element has no required attributes, but style , class and id are common.
<div> as a container
The <div> element is often used to group sections of a web page together.
Example
<div>
<h2>London</h2>
<p>London is the capital city of England.</p>
<p>London has over 9 million inhabitants.</p>
</div>Live preview
Center align a <div> element
If you have a <div> element that is not 100% wide, and you want to center-align it, set the CSS margin property to auto .
Example
<style>
div {
width:300px;
margin:auto;
}
</style>Live preview
Multiple <div> elements
You can have many <div> containers on the same page.
Example
<div>
<h2>London</h2>
<p>London is the capital city of England.</p>
<p>London has over 9 million inhabitants.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2>Oslo</h2>
<p>Oslo is the capital city of
Norway.</p>
<p>Oslo has over 700,000 inhabitants.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2>Rome</h2>
<p>Rome is the capital city of
Italy.</p>
<p>Rome has over 4 million inhabitants.</p>
</div>Live preview
Aligning <div> elements side by side
When building web pages, you often want to have two or more <div> elements side by side, like this:
London
London is the capital city of England.
London has over 9 million inhabitants.
Oslo
Oslo is the capital city of Norway.
Oslo has over 700,000 inhabitants.
Rome
Rome is the capital city of Italy.
Rome has over 4 million inhabitants.
There are different methods for aligning elements side by side, all include some CSS styling. We will look at the most common methods:
Float
The CSS float property was not originally meant to align <div> elements side-by-side, but has been used for this purpose for many years.
The CSS float property is used for positioning and formatting content and allows elements to be positioned horizontally, rather than vertically.
Example
<style>
.mycontainer {
width:100%;
overflow:auto;
}
.mycontainer div {
width:33%;
float:left;
}
</style>Live preview
Learn more about float in our CSS float tutorial .
Inline-block
If you change the <div> element's display property from block to inline-block , the <div> elements will no longer add a line break before and after, and will be displayed side by side instead of on top of each other.
Example
<style>
div {
width: 30%;
display:
inline-block;
}
</style>Live preview
Flex
The CSS Flexbox Layout Module was introduced to make it easier to design flexible responsive layout structure without using float or positioning.
To make the CSS flex method work, surround the <div> elements with another <div> element and give it the status as a flex container.
Example
<style>
.mycontainer {
display: flex;
}
.mycontainer
> div {
width:33%;
}
</style>Live preview
Learn more about flex in our CSS flexbox tutorial .
Grid
The CSS Grid Layout Module offers a grid-based layout system, with rows and columns, making it easier to design web pages without having to use floats and positioning.
Sounds almost the same as flex, but has the ability to define more than one row and position each row individually.
The CSS grid method requires that you surround the <div> elements with another <div> element and give the status as a grid container, and you must specify the width of each column.
Example
<style>
.grid-container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 33% 33% 33%;
}
</style>Live preview
Learn more about grid in our CSS grid tutorial .
HTML Tags
| Tag | Description |
|---|---|
| <div> | Defines a section in a document (block-level) |
For a complete list of all available HTML tags, visit our HTML Tag Reference .