Understanding Bootstrap's clearfix class

.clearfix {
  *zoom: 1;
  &:before,
  &:after {
    display: table;
    content: "";
    // Fixes Opera/contenteditable bug:
    // http://nicolasgallagher.com/micro-clearfix-hack/#comment-36952
    line-height: 0;
  }
  &:after {
    clear: both;
  }
}

1. Why not use display:block?
2. In addition, why does it also apply to the ::before pseudoclass?

.clearfix is defined in less/mixins.less. Right above its definition is a comment with a link to this article:

A new micro clearfix hack

The article explains how it all works.

UPDATE: Yes, link-only answers are bad. I knew this even at the time that I posted this answer, but I didn't feel like copying and pasting was OK due to copyright, plagiarism, and what have you. However, I now feel like it's OK since I have linked to the original article. I should also mention the author's name, though, for credit: Nicolas Gallagher. Here is the meat of the article (note that "Thierry’s method" is referring to Thierry Koblentz’s “clearfix reloaded”):

This “micro clearfix” generates pseudo-elements and sets their display to table. This creates an anonymous table-cell and a new block formatting context that means the :before pseudo-element prevents top-margin collapse. The :after pseudo-element is used to clear the floats. As a result, there is no need to hide any generated content and the total amount of code needed is reduced.

Including the :before selector is not necessary to clear the floats, but it prevents top-margins from collapsing in modern browsers. This has two benefits:

• It ensures visual consistency with other float containment techniques that create a new block formatting context, e.g., overflow:hidden

• It ensures visual consistency with IE 6/7 when zoom:1 is applied.

N.B.: There are circumstances in which IE 6/7 will not contain the bottom margins of floats within a new block formatting context. Further details can be found here: Better float containment in IE using CSS expressions.

The use of content:" " (note the space in the content string) avoids an Opera bug that creates space around clearfixed elements if the contenteditable attribute is also present somewhere in the HTML. Thanks to Sergio Cerrutti for spotting this fix. An alternative fix is to use font:0/0 a.

Legacy Firefox

Firefox < 3.5 will benefit from using Thierry’s method with the addition of visibility:hidden to hide the inserted character. This is because legacy versions of Firefox need content:"." to avoid extra space appearing between the body and its first child element, in certain circumstances (e.g., jsfiddle.net/necolas/K538S/.)

Alternative float-containment methods that create a new block formatting context, such as applying overflow:hidden or display:inline-block to the container element, will also avoid this behaviour in legacy versions of Firefox.

The :before pseudo element isn't needed for the clearfix hack itself.

It's just an additional nice feature helping to prevent margin-collapsing of the first child element. Thus the top margin of an child block element of the "clearfixed" element is guaranteed to be positioned below the top border of the clearfixed element.

display:table is being used because display:block doesn't do the trick. Using display:block margins will collapse even with a :before element.

There is one caveat: if vertical-align:baseline is used in table cells with clearfixed <div> elements, Firefox won't align well. Then you might prefer using display:block despite loosing the anti-collapsing feature. In case of further interest read this article: Clearfix interfering with vertical-align.

When a clearfix is used in a parent container, it automatically wraps around all the child elements.

It is usually used after floating elements to clear the float layout.

When float layout is used, it will horizontally align the child elements. Clearfix clears this behaviour.

Example - Bootstrap Panels

In bootstrap, when the class panel is used, there are 3 child types: panel-header, panel-body, panel-footer. All of which have display:block layout but panel-body has a clearfix pre-applied. panel-body is a main container type whereas panel-header & panel-footer isn't intended to be a container, it is just intended to hold some basic text.

If floating elements are added, the parent container does not get wrapped around those elements because the height of floating elements is not inherited by the parent container.

So for panel-header & panel-footer, clearfix is needed to clear the float layout of elements: Clearfix class gives a visual appearance that the height of the parent container has been increased to accommodate all of its child elements.

 <div class="container">
    <div class="panel panel-default">
        <div class="panel-footer">
            <div class="col-xs-6">
                <input type="button" class="btn btn-primary"   value="Button1">
                <input type="button" class="btn btn-primary"   value="Button2">
                <input type="button" class="btn btn-primary"   value="Button3">
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="panel panel-default">
        <div class="panel-footer">
            <div class="col-xs-6">
                <input type="button" class="btn btn-primary"   value="Button1">
                <input type="button" class="btn btn-primary"   value="Button2">
                <input type="button" class="btn btn-primary"   value="Button3">
            </div>
            <div class="clearfix"/>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>