Equal Height Division Using Javascript And CSS

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:47:46 +0000

This technique is really simple. Having equal height division in your design is sometimes necessary to maintain consistent look and feel on your layout. You can use this technique to make your sidebars equal height, or to make your content area and the sidebars equal height.

Get The Source Code: Without Jquery With Jquery

Step 1:
Create an index.html file for your layout. I create an example html layout for this article.




    
    Equal Height Division Using Javascript and CSS
    
    



    
        
            
                The Main Content
                The Main Content
                The Main Content
                The Main Content
                The Main Content
            
            
                The Sidebar Content
                The Sidebar Content
                The Sidebar Content

STEP 2:
Now we will create a stylesheet for the layout we just created. Let’s name it as style.css.

/*The Styles*/
p {
    text-align:center;
    font-family:Georgia;
    font-size:18px;
    font-variant:small-caps;
    color:#555555;
    padding:0;
    margin:20px 10px 20px 10px;
}
a {
    color:#FFFFFF;
    font-size:11px;
}
.outer {
    background:#FFFFFF;
    margin:0 auto;
    width:800px;
}
.inner {
    width:100%;
    float:left;
}
.main {
    background:#00A2FF;
    width:500px;
    float:left;
    border-right:1px solid #000;
    margin-left:-1px;
}
.sidebar {
    background:#EEEEEE;
    width:300px;
    float:right;
}

STEP 3:
Finally, here comes the javascript code that controls the height of the divisions and makes them equal height.

var DivOneClassArr = new Array();
var DivTwoClassArr = new Array();

function getElementsByClassName( ClassName1, ClassName2, obj ) {
    if ( obj.className == ClassName1 ) {
        DivOneClassArr[DivOneClassArr.length] = obj;
    }
    if ( obj.className == ClassName2 ) {
        DivTwoClassArr[DivTwoClassArr.length] = obj;
    }
    for ( var i = 0; i < obj.childNodes.length; i++ )
        getElementsByClassName( ClassName1, ClassName2, obj.childNodes[i] );
}

function grabtheclass() {
    DivOneClassArr.length = 0;
    aryClassElements2.length = 0;
    getElementsByClassName( 'main', 'sidebar', document.body );
    for ( var i = 0; i < DivOneClassArr.length || i < DivTwoClassArr.length; i++ ) {
        if(DivOneClassArr[i].offsetHeight > DivTwoClassArr[i].offsetHeight) {
            DivTwoClassArr[i].style.height = DivOneClassArr[i].offsetHeight +'px';
        }
        else if (DivOneClassArr[i].offsetHeight < DivTwoClassArr[i].offsetHeight) {
            DivOneClassArr[i].style.height = DivTwoClassArr[i].offsetHeight +'px';
        }
    }
}

Analysis: This script calculate the height of the divisions taking their class name in the function grabtheclass(). The division with more height is selected by comparing the height of the two divisions. If division div1 for instance is having more height, then the other division say div2 with shorter height will be assigned a new height equal to the height of div1. This is what the code does to make them equal height.

Check the demo here

STEP 4 (Optional):
This step is optional only. Here instead of using the above javascript code, jquery library is used. Then the code below can be used to get similar result. To use this javascript code, you need to import jquery library. You can get jquery library here Jquery.com.

Add the jquery library file in the head section of your html.

and you can remove the onload attribute in the since this is not necessary anymore if we use jquery.

Now create a file named javascript.js or use the one you created before and use the code below.

$(document).ready(function(){
    if($('div.main').height() > $('div.sidebar').height())
    {
        $('div.sidebar').css({
            'height':$('div.main').height()
        });
    }
    else if($('div.sidebar').height() > $('div.main').height())
    {
        $('div.main').css({
            'height':$('div.sidebar').height()
        });
    }
});

Check the demo here

Chromic Design » Javascript

Equal Height Division Using Javascript And CSS