Two divs, one fixed width, the other, the rest

Solution 1:

See: http://jsfiddle.net/SpSjL/ (adjust the browser's width)

HTML:

<div class="right"></div>
<div class="left"></div>

CSS:

.left {
    overflow: hidden;
    min-height: 50px;
    border: 2px dashed #f0f;
}

.right {
    float: right;
    width: 250px;
    min-height: 50px;
    margin-left: 10px;
    border: 2px dashed #00f;
}

You can also do it with display: table, which is usually a better approach: How can I put an input element on the same line as its label?

Solution 2:

It's 2017 and the best way to do it is by using flexbox, which is IE10+ compatible.

.box {
  display: flex;
}

.left {
  flex: 1;  /* grow */
  border: 1px dashed #f0f;
}

.right {
  flex: 0 0 250px; /* do not grow, do not shrink, start at 250px */
  border: 1px dashed #00f;
}

<div class="box">
  <div class="left">Left</div>
  <div class="right">Right 250px</div>
</div>

Solution 3:

You can use calc() Function of CSS.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/A8zLY/543/

<div class="left"></div>
<div class="right"></div>

.left {
height:200px;
width:calc(100% - 200px);
background:blue;
float:left;
}

.right {
width:200px;
height:200px;
background:red;
float:right;   
}

Hope this will help you!!

Solution 4:

If you can flip the order in the source code, you can do it like this:

HTML:

<div class="right"></div> // needs to be 250px    
<div class="left"></div>

CSS:

.right {
  width: 250px;
  float: right;
}

An example: http://jsfiddle.net/blineberry/VHcPT/

Add a container and you can do it with your current source code order and absolute positioning:

HTML:

<div id="container">
  <div class="left"></div>
  <div class="right"></div>
</div>

CSS:

#container {
  /* set a width %, ems, px, whatever */
  position: relative;
}

.left {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 250px;
}

.right {
  position: absolute;
  background: red;
  width: 250px;
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
}

Here, the .left div gets an implicitly set width from the top, left, and right styles that allows it to fill the remaining space in #container.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/blineberry/VHcPT/3/

Solution 5:

If you can wrap them in a container <div> you could use positioning to make the left <div> anchored at left:0;right:250px, see this demo. I'll say now that this will not work in IE6 as only one corner of a <div> can be absolutely positioned on a page (see here for full explanation).