Make outer div be automatically the same height as its floating content

Solution 1:

You can set the outerdiv's CSS to this

#outerdiv {
    overflow: hidden; /* make sure this doesn't cause unexpected behaviour */
}

You can also do this by adding an element at the end with clear: both. This can be added normally, with JS (not a good solution) or with :after CSS pseudo element (not widely supported in older IEs).

The problem is that containers won't naturally expand to include floated children. Be warned with using the first example, if you have any children elements outside the parent element, they will be hidden. You can also use 'auto' as the property value, but this will invoke scrollbars if any element appears outside.

You can also try floating the parent container, but depending on your design, this may be impossible/difficult.

Solution 2:

Firstly, I highly recommend you do your CSS styling in an external CSS file, rather than doing it inline. It's much easier to maintain and can be more reusable using classes.

Working off Alex's answer (& Garret's clearfix) of "adding an element at the end with clear: both", you can do it like so:

    <div id='outerdiv' style='border: 1px solid black; background-color: black;'>
        <div style='width: 300px; border: red 1px dashed; float: left;'>
            <p>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</p>
        </div>

        <div style='width: 300px; border: red 1px dashed; float: right;'>
            <p>zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz</p>
        </div>
        <div style='clear:both;'></div>
    </div>

This works (but as you can see inline CSS isn't so pretty).