Feb 6
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Learn how to set a minimum width on an element that respects the parent container's width limits, using modern CSS techniques like min() and fit-content. --- This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/79403348/ asked by the user 'Andyally' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/9186426/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/79403430/ provided by the user 'Kosh' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/5724303/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions. Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: How to set min width on content but still never exceed parent container width Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/licensing The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) license. If anything seems off to you, please feel free to drop me a comment under this video. --- The Problem When styling a child element inside a parent container, you may want the child to: Have a minimum width (e.g., 120px) if its content is smaller Expand beyond that minimum if the content is wider Never overflow or exceed the parent's width, even if the parent is smaller than 120px Traditional CSS setups struggle with this balance because setting min-width: 120px often causes overflow if the parent is narrower. The Solution Modern CSS offers tools to elegantly solve this: Key properties to use: min-width: min(100%, 120px); This means the minimum width respects whichever is smaller: the parent's full width or 120px. Prevents overflow when the parent is narrower than 120px. width: fit-content; Allows the element to grow to fit its content width when content is larger than 120px but smaller than parent's width. max-width: 100%; Ensures the element never grows beyond the parent's width. Why this works min() function dynamically chooses the smaller value, solving overflow on narrow parents. fit-content tells the browser to size the element based on content's intrinsic width. Capping with max-width: 100% prevents exceeding the parent's width. Example CSS [[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]] Real-World Usage This setup adapts gracefully when: The parent's width is less than 120px: the content shrinks to fit parent. The content is smaller than 120px and parent is wider: element stays at 120px minimum. The content grows beyond 120px but fits inside the parent: element expands accordingly. The content is larger than the parent width: element shrinks to fit, showing ellipsis if overflow occurs. Use this pattern anytime you want a flexible yet constrained element sizing that respects parent container limits without using JavaScript or complex workarounds.