Fixed width div on left, fill remaining width div on right

Question

I want a div with a fixed width image on the left and a variable width div with a background color, which should extend its width 100% on my device. I can't stop the second div from overflowing my fixed div.

When I add overflow:hidden at the variable width div it just jumps under the photo, on the next row.

How can I fix this the right way (i.e. without hacks or margin-left, since I need to make the site responsive later with media queries and I have to change the image with other resolution images for each device)?

• beginner web designer trying to tackle the horror of responsive websites -

HTML:

<div class="header"></div>
<div class="header-right"></div>

CSS:

.header{
    float:left;
    background-image: url('img/header.png');
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    width: 240px;
    height: 100px;
    }

.header-right{
    float:left; 
    overflow:hidden; 
    background-color:#000;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100px;
    }

Solution

Try removing the float:left and width:100% from .header-right — the right div then behaves as requested.

.header {
  float: left;
  background: #efefef;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  width: 240px;
  height: 100px;
}

.header-right {
  overflow: hidden; 
  background-color: #000;
  height: 100px;
}

<div class="header"></div>
<div class="header-right"></div>

Comments

[Anamaria Miehs]

Thanks so much! It works on both the iPhone and Android Galaxy S plus! I think I just have to watch out and make the right media query min-device-pixel-ratio. Wish I could vote up, but I'm too new.

[Paul Gear]

If you wanted to reverse the setup and have the right div fixed and the variable-width div on the left, would it be as simple as as changing the float:left on .header to be float:right? I've been playing with this at jsfiddle.net/veW2z/14 and I can't seem to make it behave the way I want it to.

[caitriona]

@PaulGear yep that should do it. keep the order of the divs the same though.

[Paul Gear]

Any ideas why jsfiddle.net/veW2z/19 isn't doing the right thing? I couldn't find a way to make it work apart from adding a margin-right to the left div that exceeds the width of the right div.

[Matthew Layton]

I tested this with height: 100% on .header and .header-right. When inspected with FireBug, the .header-right element appears to fill the entire area instead of the remaining area only. Is there any explanation for this behavior?