The CSS grid minmax() function explained

DanielNovember 29, 2021December 2, 2021

What if we have a scenario where we need a layout made of 3 columns with the following behavior:

• the first column can go anywhere from 100px to a maximum of 300px, depending on the screen of size of the screen
• the second and third columns will take 50% each of the remaining space.

So, for example, if we have a screen of 700px with then the first column will take 300px, while the next two columns will have 200px each.

The tricky part is defining the size of the first column. Well, this is what the minmax() function is made for. You give it a max and min value and that column / row will not exceed or go below those sizes.

For our case we will have the folwing:

.container {
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: minmax(100px, 300px) 1fr 1fr;
}

Of course, the first value can not be smaller than the second one.

We can apply it also to the rows. So if we want to set a minimum height for the rows we can say:

.container {
    grid-auto-rows: minmax(50px, auto);
}

Take a look at this codepen for the full example:

See the Pen
minmax by JS Craft (@js-craft)
on CodePen.