Style input element to fill remaining width of its container

Question

Let's say I have an html snippet like this:

<div style="width:300px;">
    <label for="MyInput">label text</label>
    <input type="text" id="MyInput" />
</div>

This isn't my exact code, but the important thing is there's a label and a text input on the same line in a fixed-width container. How can I style the input to fill the remaining width of the container without wrapping and without knowing the size of the label?

Answer 1

Here is a simple and clean solution without using JavaScript or table layout hacks. It is similar to this answer: Input text auto width filling 100% with other elements floating

It is important to wrap the input field with a span which is display:block. Next thing is that the button has to come first and the the input field second.

Then you can float the button to the right and the input field fills the remaining space.

form {
    width: 500px;
    overflow: hidden;
    background-color: yellow;
}
input {
    width: 100%;
}
span {
    display: block;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding-right:10px;
}
button {
    float: right;
}

<form method="post">
     <button>Search</button>
     <span><input type="text" title="Search" /></span>
</form>

A simple fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/v7YTT/90/

Update 1: If your website is targeted towards modern browsers only, I suggest using flexible boxes. Here you can see the current support.

Update 2: This even works with multiple buttons or other elements that share the full with with the input field. Here is an example.