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15.4.2 CSS Flex Items

Child Elements (Items)

The direct child elements of a flex container automatically becomes flexible (flex) items.

The element above represents four blue flex items inside a grey flex container.

Example 1: Four blue flex items inside a grey flex container

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>
  <div>4</div>
</div> 

The order Property

The order property specifies the order of the flex items.

The first flex item in the code does not have to appear as the first item in the layout. The order value must be a number, default value is 0.

Example 2: Sort the flex items

The order property can change the order of the flex items:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div style="order: 3">1</div>
  <div style="order: 2">2</div>
  <div style="order: 4">3</div>
  <div style="order: 1">4</div>
</div>

The flex-grow Property

The flex-grow property specifies how much a flex item will grow relative to the rest of the flex items.

The value must be a number, default value is 0.

Example 3: The flex-grow property

Make the third flex item grow eight times faster than the other flex items:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div style="flex-grow: 1">1</div>
  <div style="flex-grow: 1">2</div>
  <div style="flex-grow: 8">3</div>
</div>

The flex-shrink Property

The flex-shrink property specifies how much a flex item will shrink relative to the rest of the flex items.

I added overflow: auto to the <div> container to enhance the look on screens smaller than 600px wide.

The value must be a number, default value is 1.

Example 4: The flex-shrink property

Do not let the third flex item shrink as much as the other flex items:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div style="flex-shrink: 0">3</div>
  <div>4</div>
  <div>5</div>
  <div>6</div>
  <div>7</div>
  <div>8</div>
  <div>9</div>
  <div>10</div>
</div>

The flex-basis Property

The flex-basis property specifies the initial length of a flex item.

Example 5: The flex-basis property

Set the initial length of the third flex item to 200 pixels:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div style="flex-basis: 200px">3</div>
  <div>4</div>
</div>

The flex Property

The flex property is a shorthand property for the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis properties.

Example 6: The flex shorthand property

Make the third flex item not growable (0), not shrinkable (0), and with an initial length of 200 pixels:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div style="flex: 0 0 200px">3</div>
  <div>4</div>
</div> 

The align-self Property

The align-self property specifies the alignment for the selected item inside the flexible container. The align-self property overrides the default alignment set by the container's align-items property.

In these examples we use a 200 pixels high container, to better demonstrate the align-self property:

Example 7: Using align-self: center

Align the third flex item in the middle of the container:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div style="align-self: center">3</div>
  <div>4</div>
</div> 

Example 8: Using align-self: flex-start and align-self: flex-end

Align the second flex item at the top of the container, and the third flex item at the bottom of the container:

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div style="align-self: flex-start">2</div>
  <div style="align-self: flex-end">3</div>
  <div>4</div>
</div>