Make outer div be automatically the same height as its floating content

Question

I want the outer div, which is black to wrap its divs floating within it. I dont want to use style='height: 200px in the div with the outerdiv id as I want it to be automatically the height of its content (eg, the floating divs).

<div id='outerdiv' style='border: 1px solid black;background-color: black;'>
<div style='width=300px;border: red 1px dashed;float: left;'>
    <p>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</p>
</div>

<div style='width=300px;border: red 1px dashed;float: right;'>
    <p>zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz</p>
</div>

How to achieve this?

Answer 1

You can set the outerdiv's CSS to this

#outerdiv {
    overflow: hidden; /* make sure this doesn't cause unexpected behaviour */
}

You can also do this by adding an element at the end with clear: both. This can be added normally, with JS (not a good solution) or with :after CSS pseudo element (not widely supported in older IEs).

The problem is that containers won't naturally expand to include floated children. Be warned with using the first example, if you have any children elements outside the parent element, they will be hidden. You can also use 'auto' as the property value, but this will invoke scrollbars if any element appears outside.

You can also try floating the parent container, but depending on your design, this may be impossible/difficult.