How to float 3 divs side by side using CSS?

Question

I know how to make 2 divs float side by side, simply float one to the left and the other to the right.

But how to do this with 3 divs or should I just use tables for this purpose?

Answer 1

I prefer this method, floats are poorly supported in older versions of IE (really?...)

.column-left{ position:absolute; left: 0px; width: 33.3%; background: red; }
.column-right{position:absolute; left:66.6%; width: 33.3%; background: green; }
.column-center{ position:absolute; left:33.3%; width: 33.3%; background: yellow; }

UPDATED : Of course, to use this technique and due to the absolute positioning you need to enclose the divs on a container and do a postprocessing to define the height of if, something like this:

jQuery(document).ready(function(){ 
    jQuery('.main').height( Math.max (
        jQuery('.column-left').height(),
        jQuery('.column‌​-right').height(),
        jQuery('.column-center').height())
    ); 
});

Not the most amazing thing in the world, but at least doesn't break on older IEs.

Answer 2

try to add "display: block" to the style

<style>
   .left{
          display: block;
          float:left; 
          width:33%;
    }
</style>


<div class="left">...</div>
<div class="left">...</div>
<div class="left">...</div>

Answer 3

<style>
.left-column
{
float:left;
width:30%;
background-color:red;
}
.right-column
{
float:right;
width:30%;
background-color:green;
}
.center-column
{
margin:auto;
width:30%;
background-color:blue;
}
</style>

<div id="container">
<section class="left-column">THIS IS COLUMN 1 LEFT</section>
<section class="right-column">THIS IS COLUMN 3 RIGHT</section>
<section class="center-column">THIS IS COLUMN 2 CENTER</section>
</div>

the advantage of this way is you can set each column width independant of the other as long as you keep it under 100%, if you use 3 x 30% the remaining 10% is split as a 5% divider space between the collumns

Answer 4

float them all left

make sure a width is specified that they can all fit in their container (either another div or the window), otherwise they will wrap

Answer 5

I usually just float the first to the left, the second to the right. The third automatically aligns between them then.

<div style="float: left;">Column 1</div>
<div style="float: right;">Column 3</div>
<div>Column 2</div>

Answer 6

Here's how I managed to do something similar to this inside a <footer> element:

<div class="content-wrapper">

    <div style="float:left">
        <p>&copy; 2012 - @DateTime.Now.Year @Localization.ClientName</p>
    </div>

    <div style="float:right">
        <p>@Localization.DevelopedBy <a href="http://leniel.net" target="_blank">Leniel Macaferi</a></p>
    </div>

    <div style="text-align:center;">
        <p>☎ (24) 3347-3110 | (24) 8119-1085&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;✉ @Html.ActionLink(Localization.Contact, MVC.Home.ActionNames.Contact, MVC.Home.Name)</p>
    </div>

</div>

CSS:

.content-wrapper
{
    margin: 0 auto;
    max-width: 1216px;
}