Flex Container With Two Columns; Second Column Has Four Rows

I am having difficulty displaying the following layout in flex. I have 5 boxes and I want to divide my container in two, displaying one box vertically and the other 4 vertically.

Solution 1:

I'm not entirely clear on your question or code. But here's a general solution:

flex-container-1 {
    display: flex;                   /* establish flex container */
    flex-direction: row;             /* flex items will align horizontally */
    justify-content: center;         /* center flex items horizontally */
    align-items: center;             /* center flex items vertically */
    
    /* for demo purposes only */
    height: 250px;
    width: 400px;
    border: 1px solid #777;
    background-color: lightgreen;
}

flex-container-1 > flex-item {
    height: 90%;
    flex: 0 0 45%;                   /* <flex-grow> <flex-shrink> <flex-basis> */
    margin-right: 8px;               /* a bit of space between the centered items */
    border: 1px dashed #333;
    background-color: yellow;
}

flex-container-2 {
    height: 90%;
    flex: 0 0 45%;
    display: flex;                   /* flex item is now also flex container */
    flex-direction: column;          /* items will stack vertically */
    justify-content: space-between;  /* align items vertically */
}

flex-container-2 > flex-item {
    flex: 0 0 22%;
    border: 1px dashed #333;
    background-color: yellow;
}

<flex-container-1><!-- main container -->

    <flex-item></flex-item><!-- flex item #1 (first column) -->
    
    <flex-container-2><!-- flex item #2 / nested flex container (second column) -->
    
        <flex-item></flex-item>

        <flex-item></flex-item>

        <flex-item></flex-item>

        <flex-item></flex-item>

    </flex-container-2><!-- close nested container -->
    
</flex-container-1><!-- close main container -->

jsFiddle

Solution 2:

I struggled and struggled on this one and then serendipitously discovered a new solution to this problem right as I had decided to give up and use floats. I was finally able to get this to work without using separate DIVs for columns.

UPDATE: I have simplified my previous version of this by having the height specified on .items.

1. Provide non-percentage width and height to .items.
2. Use flex-direction: column on .items.

CSS:

.items {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  width: 40em;
  height: 20em;
}

  .item:first-child {
    width: 20em;
    height: 20em;
    background-color: black;
  }

  .item:nth-child(2) {
    width: 20em;
    height: 5em;
    background-color: pink;
  }

  .item:nth-child(3) {
    width: 20em;
    height: 5em;
    background-color: blue;
  }

  .item:nth-child(4) {
    width: 20em;
    height: 5em;
    background-color: yellow;
  }

  .item:last-child {
    width: 20em;
    height: 5em;
    background-color: red;
  }

HTML:

<div class="items">
  <div class="item"></div>
  <div class="item"></div>
  <div class="item"></div>
  <div class="item"></div>
  <div class="item"></div>
</div><!-- .items -->

Codepen: https://codepen.io/anon/pen/ZXoqJJ

Solution 3:

flex-container-1 {
    display: flex;                   /* establish flex container */
    flex-direction: row;             /* flex items will align horizontally */
    justify-content: center;         /* center flex items horizontally */
    align-items: center;             /* center flex items vertically */
    
    /* for demo purposes only */
    height: 250px;
    width: 400px;
    border: 1px solid #777;
    background-color: lightgreen;
}

flex-container-1 > flex-item {
    height: 90%;
    flex: 0 0 45%;                   /* <flex-grow> <flex-shrink> <flex-basis> */
    margin-right: 8px;               /* a bit of space between the centered items */
    border: 1px dashed #333;
    background-color: yellow;
}

flex-container-2 {
    height: 90%;
    flex: 0 0 45%;
    display: flex;                   /* flex item is now also flex container */
    flex-direction: column;          /* items will stack vertically */
    justify-content: space-between;  /* align items vertically */
}

flex-container-2 > flex-item {
    flex: 0 0 22%;
    border: 1px dashed #333;
    background-color: yellow;
}

<flex-container-1><!-- main container -->

    <flex-item></flex-item><!-- flex item #1 (first column) -->
    
    <flex-container-2><!-- flex item #2 / nested flex container (second column) -->
    
        <flex-item></flex-item>

        <flex-item></flex-item>

        <flex-item></flex-item>

        <flex-item></flex-item>

    </flex-container-2><!-- close nested container -->
    
</flex-container-1><!-- close main container -->