How to Make Flexbox Children Occupy Full Available Space While Maintaining Their Original Heights?

Flexbox: Achieving Variable-Height Children to Fully Utilize Available Space

Flexbox is a powerful layout module that enables web developers to create responsive and flexible layouts. One common use case is creating a two-column layout where each column contains child elements that vary in height. However, by default, all children within a row will have the height of the tallest child.

Problem:

How can you configure a two-column Flexbox layout to allow children of varying sizes to fully utilize the available space instead of all children having the height of the tallest child in the row?

Solution:

Flexbox does not natively allow rows to occupy space allocated for preceding or following rows. Thus, CSS alone cannot recreate a Masonry-like behavior where items in a row can stretch to fill the available space.

Implementation:

Using the align-items property set to flex-start can prevent children from stretching, ensuring that they maintain their original heights:

#container {
  width: 800px;
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  align-items: flex-start;
}

.cell {
  width: 300px;
  flex: 1 auto;
  padding: 10px;
  border: 1px solid red;
}

This solution ensures that each cell retains its original height, preventing the tallest child from imposing its height on the entire row.

Alternative Approach:

Alternatively, consider using the column orientation or the multi-column module to create a layout with variable-height columns. This approach allows items in a column to occupy the full height of that column, achieving the desired effect.

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