Question

I have the following HTML code:

<ul class="blogEntry">
    <li class="title section">
        <span><asp:Literal ID="litTitle" runat="server" /></span>
        <span class="date"><asp:Literal ID="litDate" runat="server" Text="10/1/1000" /></span>
    </li>
    <li class="body section"><asp:Literal ID="litBody" runat="server" /></li>
    <li class="tags section">
        <ul class="tags">
            <li class="tag">Tag 1</li>
            <li class="tag">Tag 2</li>
            <li class="tag">Tag 3</li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

And the following CSS code:

ul.blogEntry
{
    border: 1px solid black;
    border-bottom: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
}
ul.blogEntry li.section, ul.blogEntry li.lastsection
{
    list-style: none;
}
ul.blogEntry li.title
{
    background-color: #67A7FF;
    font-size: 14px;
    font-weight: bold;
}
ul.blogEntry li.title span
{
    display: inline;
}
ul.blogEntry li.title.section span.date
{
    float: right;
}
ul.blogEntry li.section
{
    padding: 4px;
    border-bottom: 1px solid black;
}

As is, the date will drop to a new line and float to the right. If I change the ul.blogEntry li.title span CSS and add float: left; The outer LI element’s height shrinks and the bottom border cuts right through the spans’ text. Advice?

Answer 1

Please don’t add any elements for clearing. Elements which only enable specific styling significantly breaks semantics and separation of concerns.

The simple answer is to add overflow:auto; to the container element (i.e. li.title) but there are other ways:

• http://www.positioniseverything.net/easyclearing.html
• http://www.innovatingtomorrow.net/2008/03/24/how-clear-floats-css
• http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/02/26/simple-clearing-of-floats/

Clearing blocks are EVIL.