Automatic height of inner div [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Make it simple : DEMO

section {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
  height: 300px;
}

header {
  background: tomato;
  /* no flex rules, it will grow */
}

div {
  flex: 1;  /* 1 and it will fill whole space left if no flex value are set to other children*/
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}

footer {
  background: lightgreen;
  min-height: 60px;  /* min-height has its purpose :) , unless you meant height*/
}

<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br/>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- uncomment to see it break -->
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- -->
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

Full screen version

section {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
  height: 100vh;
}

header {
  background: tomato;
  /* no flex rules, it will grow */
}

div {
  flex: 1;
  /* 1 and it will fill whole space left if no flex value are set to other children*/
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}

footer {
  background: lightgreen;
  min-height: 60px;
  /* min-height has its purpose :) , unless you meant height*/
}

body {
  margin: 0;
}

<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br/>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- uncomment to see it break -->
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br> x
    <br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    <!-- -->
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

Solution 2:

The example below includes scrolling behaviour if the content of the expanded centre component extends past its bounds. Also the centre component takes 100% of remaining space in the viewport.

jsfiddle here

html, body, .r_flex_container{
    height: 100%;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    background: red;
    margin: 0;
}
.r_flex_container {
    display:flex;
    flex-flow: column nowrap;
    background-color:blue;
}

.r_flex_fixed_child {
    flex:none;
    background-color:black;
    color:white;

}
.r_flex_expand_child {
    flex:auto;
    background-color:yellow;
    overflow-y:scroll;
}

Example of html that can be used to demonstrate this behaviour

<html>
<body>
    <div class="r_flex_container">
      <div class="r_flex_fixed_child">
        <p> This is the fixed 'header' child of the flex container </p>
      </div>
      <div class="r_flex_expand_child">
            <article>this child container expands to use all of the space given to it -  but could be shared with other expanding childs in which case they would get equal space after the fixed container space is allocated. 
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget eros faucibus tincidunt. Duis leo. Sed fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc,
            </article>
      </div>
      <div class="r_flex_fixed_child">
        this is the fixed footer child of the flex container
        asdfadsf
        <p> another line</p>
      </div>

    </div>
</body>
</html>

Solution 3:

A more modern approach would be to use the grid property.

section {
  display: grid;
  align-items: stretch;
  height: 300px;
  grid-template-rows: min-content auto 60px;
}
header {
  background: tomato;
}
div {
  background: gold;
  overflow: auto;
}
footer {
  background: lightgreen;
}

<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

Solution 4:

Use the flex-grow property to the main content div and give the display: flex; to its parent;

body {
    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;
    margin: 0;
}
section {
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction : column;
}
header {
  background: tomato;
}
div {
  flex: 1; /* or flex-grow: 1  */;
  overflow-x: auto;
  background: gold;
}
footer {
  background: lightgreen;
  min-height: 60px;
}

<section>
  <header>
    header: sized to content
    <br>(but is it really?)
  </header>
  <div>
    main content: fills remaining space<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
    x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>x<br>
  </div>
  <footer>
    footer: fixed height in px
  </footer>
</section>

Solution 5:

This is the simplest example that I can think of. The key is

Parent is display:flex
Child has flex-grow:1
Parent MUST have height specified. If you specify height:100% on a parent div, then remember, the parent exists in a <body> and you'll see the body isn't 100% unless you add height:100% on the body too.

http://jsfiddle.net/Ljbzsmvf/2/

div#parent {
  height: 300px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}

div#child {
  border: thin solid red;
  flex-grow: 1;
}

<div id='parent'>
  Parent
  <div id='child'>
    Child
  </div>
</div>