DIV Internal SPAN in CSS Prevents text-overflow:ellipsis

In this article, we’ll cover using DIVs in CSS How to prevent text overflow when using DIV and SPAN elements, and how to use the text-overflow:ellipsis property.

In CSS, DIV elements are block-level elements, while SPAN elements are inline elements. Typically, DIV elements are used to create containers around other elements, while SPAN elements can be used to style or position specific sections of text. However, sometimes a SPAN element within a DIV element can cause text overflow, which requires the use of the text-overflow:ellipsis property.

Read more: CSS Tutorial

text-overflow:ellipsis Property

text-overflow:ellipsis is a CSS property used to truncate text and display an ellipsis. When text exceeds the width of its container, we can use this property to display the excess text as an ellipsis. By setting this property, we can keep the ellipsis displayed within a single line without wrapping the text.

To use the text-overflow:ellipsis property, we also need to set some other CSS properties to achieve the desired text truncation effect. Here’s an example:

.container {
width: 300px;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

In the example above, we create a container with a width of 300px and set the overflow: hidden, white-space: nowrap, and text-overflow: ellipsis properties. Overflow: hidden means that content outside the container’s width will be hidden, white-space: nowrap means that text will not wrap, and text-overflow: ellipsis means that text exceeding the container’s width will be displayed as ellipsis.

SPAN Elements Preventing text-overflow:ellipsis

Unlike DIV elements, SPAN elements are inline elements and, by default, do not trigger the text-overflow:ellipsis effect. This means that if we place a SPAN element inside a DIV element and apply the text-overflow:ellipsis property to that DIV element, the text inside the SPAN element will not be truncated.

To resolve this issue, we can use the display: inline-block property to change the SPAN element’s display to a block-level element. This will then trigger the text-overflow:ellipsis property.

Here is an example:

<div class="container"> 
<span class="text">This is a long text used to test the text-overflow:ellipsis property. </span>

</div>

.container {
width: 300px;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

.text {
display: inline-block;
}

In the above example, we added the display: inline-block property to the SPAN element. This allows the SPAN element to trigger the text-overflow:ellipsis property of the DIV element.

Summary

Through this article, we learned how to avoid the text-overflow:ellipsis property not working when using DIV and SPAN elements in CSS. We found that setting the display mode of the SPAN element to inline-block allowed us to resolve the issue of a SPAN element blocking text-overflow:ellipsis inside a DIV element.

I hope this article helps you use DIV and SPAN elements and the text-overflow:ellipsis property in CSS!