center a row using Bootstrap 3

How to center a row (12 column) in Bootstrap 3 ? I do not want to use the offset

I am using this way but not worked.

    .col-centered{
        float: none;
        margin: 0 auto;
    }

    <div class="row" style="max-width: 300px;">
        <div class="col-md-12 col-xs-12 col-centered">
            <div class="input-group">
                <div class="input-group-btn">
                    <button id="ItemForSearch" type="button" class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
                        All Items 
                                    <span class="caret"></span>
                    </button>
                    <ul id="NormalSearch" class="dropdown-menu customize-dropdown-menu">
                        <li><a href="#"> Test 1 </a></li>
        <li><a href="#"> Test 2 </a></li>
        <li><a href="#"> Test 3 </a></li>
        <li><a href="#"> Test 4 </a></li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
                <!-- /btn-group -->
                <input type="text" class="form-control">
                <span class="input-group-btn">
                    <button class="btn btn-default" type="button">
                        <i class="fa fa-search"></i>
                    </button>
                </span>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

Is there any solution to this? I have not an idea for this work.

Solution 1:

Why not using the grid system?

The bootstrap grid system consist of 12 columns, so if you use the "Medium" columns it will have a 970px width size.

Then you can divide it to 3 columns (12/3=4) so use 3 divs with "col-md-4" class:

<div class="col-md-4"></div>
<div class="col-md-4"></div>
<div class="col-md-4"></div>

Each one will have 323px max width size. Keep the first and the last empty and use the middle one to get your content centerd:

<div class="col-md-4"></div>
<div class="col-md-4">
   <p>Centered content.</p>
</div>
<div class="col-md-4"></div>

Solution 2:

What you are doing is not working, because you apply the margin: auto to the full-width column.

Wrap it in a div and center that one. E.g:

<div class="i-am-centered">
  <div class="row">...</div>
</div>

.

.i-am-centered { margin: auto; max-width: 300px;}

http://www.bootply.com/93751

Its a cleaner solution anyway, as it is more expressive and as you usually don't want to mess with the grid.

Solution 3:

I know this question was specifically targeted at Bootstrap 3, but in case Bootstrap 4 users stumble upon this question, here is how i centered rows in v4:

<div class="container">
  <div class="row justify-content-center">
  ...

More related to this topic can be found on bootstrap site.