CSS flex-direction Property
Last Updated :
18 Sep, 2024
The flex-direction property is a sub-property of the Flexible Box Layout module. It establishes the main axis of the flexible items. The main axis can be horizontal or vertical, depending on the value of the flex-direction property.
Note: The flex-direction property only works on flexible items. Without flexible items, this property has no effect.
Default Value: row
Syntax:
flex-direction: row | row-reverse | column | column-reverse;
Property values:
| Value | Description |
|---|
row | Displays items horizontally, following the normal text flow (left to right). |
row-reverse | Reverses the order of items, arranging them from right to left. |
column | Stacks items vertically, starting from the top and moving down. |
column-reverse | Flips the vertical order, displaying items from bottom to top. |
Below is a breakdown of each value for the flex-direction property:
1 . row:
It arranges the row the same as the text direction. The default value of flex-direction is row. It is used to specify that the item has normal text direction. It makes the item follow the normal text direction in lines.
Syntax:
flex-direction: row;
Example:
html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>flex-direction property</title>
<style>
#main {
width: 400px;
height: 300px;
border: 2px solid black;
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
}
#main div {
width: 100px;
height: 50px;
}
h1 {
color: #009900;
font-size: 42px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
h3 {
margin-top: -20px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
<h3>The flex-direction:row</h3>
<div id="main">
<div style="background-color:#009900;">1</div>
<div style="background-color:#00cc99;">2</div>
<div style="background-color:#0066ff;">3</div>
<div style="background-color:#66ffff;">4</div>
<div style="background-color:#660066;">5</div>
<div style="background-color:#663300;">6</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
2. row-reverse:
This property is used to follow the opposite of the text direction. It makes flex items in reverse order exactly the opposite of the text direction as we can see in the Output.
Syntax:
flex-direction: row-reverse;
Example:
html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>flex-direction property</title>
<style>
#main {
width: 400px;
height: 300px;
border: 2px solid black;
display: flex;
flex-direction: row-reverse;
}
#main div {
width: 100px;
height: 50px;
}
h1 {
color: #009900;
font-size: 42px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
h3 {
margin-top: -20px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
<h3>The flex-direction:row-reverse</h3>
<div id="main">
<div style="background-color:#009900;">1</div>
<div style="background-color:#00cc99;">2</div>
<div style="background-color:#0066ff;">3</div>
<div style="background-color:#66ffff;">4</div>
<div style="background-color:#660066;">5</div>
<div style="background-color:#663300;">6</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
3 . column:
It arranges the row as a column same as the text direction but top to bottom. It is used to specify that the item has a normal top-to-bottom direction. It makes the item follow the normal top-to-bottom direction as we can see in the Output.
Syntax:
flex-direction:column;
Example:
html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>flex-direction property</title>
<style>
#main {
width: 400px;
height: 300px;
border: 2px solid black;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
}
#main div {
width: 100px;
height: 50px;
}
h1 {
color: #009900;
font-size: 42px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
h3 {
margin-top: -20px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
<h3>The flex-direction:column</h3>
<div id="main">
<div style="background-color:#009900;">1</div>
<div style="background-color:#00cc99;">2</div>
<div style="background-color:#0066ff;">3</div>
<div style="background-color:#66ffff;">4</div>
<div style="background-color:#660066;">5</div>
<div style="background-color:#663300;">6</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
4 . column-reverse:
It arranges the row as a column same as the row-reverse bottom to top. It is used to specify that the item has a normal bottom-to-top direction. It makes the item follow the normal bottom-to-top direction as we can see in the Output.
Syntax:
flex-direction:column-reverse;
Example:
html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>flex-direction property</title>
<style>
#main {
width: 400px;
height: 300px;
border: 2px solid black;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column-reverse;
}
#main div {
width: 100px;
height: 50px;
}
h1 {
color: #009900;
font-size: 42px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
h3 {
margin-top: -20px;
margin-left: 50px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
<h3>The flex-direction:column-reverse</h3>
<div id="main">
<div style="background-color:#009900;">1</div>
<div style="background-color:#00cc99;">2</div>
<div style="background-color:#0066ff;">3</div>
<div style="background-color:#66ffff;">4</div>
<div style="background-color:#660066;">5</div>
<div style="background-color:#663300;">6</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Supported Browsers
- Google Chrome: 29.0 and above
- Edge: 12.0 and above
- Mozilla Firefox: 28.0 and above
- Opera: 12.1 and above
- Safari: 9.0 and above
Note: The flex-direction property is widely supported across all modern browsers. However, for older versions, especially before IE11, the display: flex feature might not be fully supported or may require vendor prefixes like -webkit- for older WebKit browsers.
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