OverFlow Property in CSS

Saurav MaheshwariSaurav Maheshwari
2 min read

Table of contents

The overflow property determines what will happen is text/content overflows the container. It removes extra text/content or add scroll button on the basis of attribute we are giving to overflow property.

By default it is set to overflow:visible.

<body>
    <div class="parent">
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit, amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Sapiente
      explicabo asperiores ipsum corrupti accusamus quaerat, soluta temporibus
      ratione hic,
    </div>
  </body>

body {
        display: flex;
        font-family: Georgia;
        font-size: 15px;

        align-items: center;
        justify-content: center;
        height: 100vh;
      }
.parent {
        height: 100px;
        width: 100px;
        border: 2px solid red;
                overflow: visible;
        }

image.png

Using overflow: hidden

It will hide the overflowing content and will show on the not overflowing part in the container.

image.png

.parent { height: 100px; width: 100px; border: 2px solid red; overflow: hidden; }

Using overflow:scroll

It will add a scroll bar to see the overflowing content.

overflow1.gif

.parent { height: 100px; width: 100px; border: 2px solid red; overflow: scroll; }

Using overflow:clip

image.png

Using overflow:auto

It will use overflow:visible and overflow-scroll bot h depending on the situation. If our text/content is not oveflowing it will use overflow:visible and if it is overflowing our container then it will use overflow:scroll.

Case-1 Using overflow:visible on using overflow:auto

<body>
    <div class="parent">
      ipsum corrupti accusamus quaerat, soluta temporibus ratione hic,
    </div>
  </body>

body {
        display: flex;
        font-family: Georgia;
        font-size: 15px;

        align-items: center;
        justify-content: center;
        height: 100vh;
      }

      .parent {
        height: 100px;
        width: 100px;
        border: 2px solid red;
        overflow: auto;
      }

image.png

Case-2 Using overflow:scroll on using overflow:auto

<body>
    <div class="parent">
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit, amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Sapiente
      explicabo asperiores ipsum corrupti accusamus quaerat, soluta temporibus
      ratione hic,
    </div>
  </body>
```html

```css
 overflow: auto;

overflow2.gif

We can also override overflow property in specific directions only.

Before adding overflow-y:scroll it was overflowing in y-direction

.parent {
        height: 100px;
        width: 100px;
        border: 2px solid red;
        }

image.png

After adding overflow-y:scroll it is scrolling in y-direction

 .parent {
        height: 100px;
        width: 100px;
        border: 2px solid red;
       overflow-y: scroll;
      }

overflow3.gif

Content will overflow along x-axis when we use a block level element like div etc. Also try out overflow-x property by yourself.

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Saurav Maheshwari
Saurav Maheshwari