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CSS CSS Flexbox Layout Flexbox Properties Smarter Layouts with flex-basis and flex

Frank Book
Frank Book
308 Points
Posted by Frank Book
Frank Book
308 Points

flex property values

As I read on MDN the second value in flex: property is flex-shrink. Once we set up the first value for flex item it will set up flex-basis to 0 which is the 3. value in the flex: property. Can you please explain me.

.item{
flex: 1 200px;
}
michael apprich
michael apprich
9,989 Points

The MDN article can be a bit confusing I think. Check out this article on CSS Tricks. I find their explanation easier to understand when it comes to the shorthand syntax based on how many values you are using. https://css-tricks.com/almanac/properties/f/flex/

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points

The "flex" shorthand is a bit tricky, and if you use less than 3 arguments what actually gets set will depend on the type of argument(s) provided.

When you give 2 values, the first one will always be flex-grow; but the second one can be either flex-shrink or flex-basis depending on the value given.

A plain number will be used for flex-shrink (and flex-basis will be set to 0), but a pixel dimension as you show here will be interpreted as flex-basis (and flex-shrink will be set to 1).