CSS flex-direction Property

The flex-direction property specifies the main axis of a flex container and sets the order of flex items. It is one of the CSS3 properties. This property is a part of the Flexible Box Layout module.

Flex items can be displayed:

horizontally from left to right (flex-direction: row) or right to left (flex-direction: row-reverse)
vertically from top to bottom (flex-direction: column) or from bottom to top (flex-direction: column-reverse)

Info

If there are no flexible items, the flex-direction property has no effect.

Initial Value	row
Applies to	Flex containers.
Inherited	No.
Animatable	No.
Version	CSS3
DOM Syntax	object.style.flexDirection = "row-reverse";

Syntax

Syntax of CSS flex-direction Property

flex-direction: row | row-reverse | column | column-reverse | initial | inherit;

Example of the flex-direction property:

Example of CSS flex-direction property with column-reverse value

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .example {
        width: 350px;
        height: 350px;
        border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column-reverse;
      }
      .example div {
        width: 70px;
        height: 70px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Flex-direction property example</h2>
    <div class="example">
      <div style="background-color: #8ebf42;">A</div>
      <div style="background-color: #1c87c9;">B</div>
      <div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">C</div>
      <div style="background-color: #666666;">F</div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

In the following example, the items are displayed horizontally as a row from right to left.

Example of the flex-direction property with the "row-reverse" value:

Example of CSS flex-direction property with row-reverse value

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .example {
        width: 350px;
        height: 350px;
        border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: row-reverse;
      }
      .example div {
        width: 70px;
        height: 70px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Flex-direction property example</h2>
    <div class="example">
      <div style="background-color: #8ebf42;">A</div>
      <div style="background-color: #1c87c9;">B</div>
      <div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">C</div>
      <div style="background-color: #666666;">F</div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

The following image shows the items displayed in reverse order from right to left.

Example of the flex-direction property with the "row" value:

Example of the flex-direction property with the “row” value

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .example {
        width: 350px;
        height: 350px;
        border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: row;
      }
      .example div {
        width: 70px;
        height: 70px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Flex-direction property example</h2>
    <div class="example">
      <div style="background-color: #8ebf42;">A</div>
      <div style="background-color: #1c87c9;">B</div>
      <div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">C</div>
      <div style="background-color: #666666;">F</div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the flex-direction property with the "column" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .example {
        width: 350px;
        height: 350px;
        border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column;
      }
      .example div {
        width: 70px;
        height: 70px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Flex-direction property example</h2>
    <div class="example">
      <div style="background-color: #DC143C;">A</div>
      <div style="background-color: #0000CD;">B</div>
      <div style="background-color: #9ACD32;">C</div>
      <div style="background-color: #666666;">F</div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the flex-direction property with the "column-reverse" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .example {
        width: 350px;
        height: 340px;
        border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column-reverse;
      }
      .example div {
        width: 60px;
        height: 60px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Flex-direction property example</h2>
    <div class="example">
      <div style="background-color: #DC143C;">A</div>
      <div style="background-color: #0000CD;">B</div>
      <div style="background-color: #9ACD32;">C</div>
      <div style="background-color: #666666;">F</div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Values

Value	Description	Play it
row	Items are displayed horizontally as a row. This is the default value of this property.	Play it »
row-reverse	Items are displayed in a row in a reverse order (from right to left).	Play it »
column	Items are displayed vertically from top to bottom.	Play it »
column-reverse	Items are displayed vertically from bottom to top.	Play it »
initial	The property uses its default value.	Play it »
inherit	The property inherits the value from its parent element.	Play it »

Syntax

Example of the flex-direction property:

Example of the flex-direction property with the "row-reverse" value:

Result

Example of the flex-direction property with the "row" value:

Example of the flex-direction property with the "column" value:

Example of the flex-direction property with the "column-reverse" value:

Values

Practice