Question

I know there are a hundred and one questions about autosizing a div’s height but no suggestions seem to work for me which leads me to believe I’m missing something obvious. Basically I have a container Div, then another smaller div inside (absolutely positioned) and in side that one I have X about of div boxes being created (relatively positioned). The problem is that the height of the main container div won’t stretch with it. Any help? Thanks!

.mainContainer{
    position: relative;
    width:800px;
    height:auto;
    padding-top:10px;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    border-style:solid;
    border-width:2px;
}
.smallerDivInsideMainDiv{
    position:absolute;
    left: 20px;
    top: 50px;
    width: 600px;
}
.divsThatAreOverflowing{
    position: relative;
    margin-top:20px;
    border-style:solid;
    border-width:1px;
}

Answer 1

From what I know, you can’t have an absolutely positioned element inside a relatively positioned element and attempt to have the parent height adjust to the absolute child. If you’re only using it for positioning with left and right, use margins instead.

<style>
.mainContainer{
    width: 800px;
    height: auto;
    padding-top: 10px;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 2px;
    background: #999;
}
.smallerDivInsideMainDiv{
    margin-left: 20px;
    margin-top: 50px;
    background: #CCC;
    width: 200px;
}
.divsThatAreOverflowing{
    margin-top: 20px;
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 1px;
    background: red;
    height: 300px;
    width: 100px;
}​
</style>

<div class="mainContainer">
    <div class="smallerDivInsideMainDiv">
<div class="divsThatAreOverflowing"></div>
    </div></div>

Here the parent is dark grey, and smaller div inside is light grey, with the overflowing div as red. When it changes height, both of it’s containers will adjust.