Methods for Preventing Overflow in a Flexible Container During Vertical Expansion

Introduction

In the design world of websites, one of the challenges you might face is when you need a flexible container to expand beyond limits during vertical expansion. This issue has many use cases; for example, when you want the elements in a container to be appropriately and coherently aligned without the container itself gaining additional height.

Flexbox essentially allows the containers to expand and shrink in the available space. This feature can sometimes cause the container to exceed maximum height, and this may lead to unaddressed issues in aesthetic design.

The first action you can take to manage this topic is to use properties like align-items and justify-content. These properties make it easier to position elements in the container space.

Using Default Height Properties

Another key approach is to utilize maximum height properties. By determining a threshold for height for the container, you can prevent it from growing more than necessary, which can be achieved with the max-height property. Additionally, using comparative dimensions for height can give you better control over layout issues.

Thus, using overflow: hidden; can prevent accidental overflow of content in the container. This feature ensures that even if the in-container elements may not be entirely visible, the extra space will not be accessed.

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  max-height: 100vh;
  overflow: hidden;
}

Line-by-Line Explanation of Code