flex-wrap in CSS – How to Wrap Overflown Flex Items

flex-wrap specifies whether browsers should wrap overflown flexible items onto multiple lines.

The flex-wrap property accepts the following values:

• nowrap
• wrap
• wrap-reverse

Let’s discuss the three values below.

What Is flex-wrap: nowrap in CSS Flexbox?

nowrap is flex-wrap’s default value. It forces all items within a flexible container into a single line (that is, row-wise or column-wise direction).

In other words, nowrap tells browsers not to wrap a flexible container’s items.

Note

Suppose the total width (or height) of all the items in a flexible container is greater than the flexbox’s width (or height). In such a case, nowrap will cause the elements to overflow out of the container.

Here’s an example:

CSS

section {
  width: 130px;
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: nowrap;
  background-color: orange;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 7px;
}

div {
  background-color: purple;
  color: white;
  margin: 5px;
  padding: 10px;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

HTML

<section>
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>
</section>
<section>
  <div>4</div>
  <div>5</div>
  <div>6</div>
  <div>7</div>
  <div>8</div>
  <div>9</div>
  <div>10</div>
</section>

Try Editing It

The snippet above used nowrap to force browsers to lay out the flexible containers’ items in a single line.

What Is flex-wrap: wrap in CSS Flexbox?

wrap moves all overflown items within a flexible container to the next line.

In other words, wrap tells browsers to wrap a flexible container’s overflown items.

Here’s an example:

CSS

section {
  width: 130px;
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  background-color: orange;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 7px;
}

div {
  background-color: purple;
  color: white;
  margin: 5px;
  padding: 10px;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

HTML

<section>
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>
</section>
<section>
  <div>4</div>
  <div>5</div>
  <div>6</div>
  <div>7</div>
  <div>8</div>
  <div>9</div>
  <div>10</div>
</section>

Try Editing It

We used wrap to wrap the flexible containers’ overflown items to the next line.

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What Is flex-wrap: wrap-reverse in CSS Flexbox?

wrap-reverse moves all overflown items within a flexible container to the next line in reverse order.

Note

wrap-reverse does the same thing as wrap—but in reverse order.

Here’s an example:

CSS

section {
  width: 130px;
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap-reverse;
  background-color: orange;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 7px;
}

div {
  background-color: purple;
  color: white;
  margin: 5px;
  padding: 10px;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

HTML

<section>
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>
</section>
<section>
  <div>4</div>
  <div>5</div>
  <div>6</div>
  <div>7</div>
  <div>8</div>
  <div>9</div>
  <div>10</div>
</section>

Try Editing It

We used wrap-reverse to wrap the flexible containers’ overflown items to the next line in reverse order.