How Can Flex Order's Limitations Be Overcome When Rearranging Items in Responsive Layouts?

Flex Order: Challenges in Rearranging Items for Responsive Views

In designing responsive layouts, the flex order property offers a convenient way to manipulate the order of elements on different screen sizes. However, certain scenarios can expose limitations of using order in a flex container.

The Problem: Order on Mobile, Failure on Desktop

Consider a layout with three divs inside a container, arranged vertically on mobile screens. Using flex order, we aim to re-arrange the divs as follows: 2, 1, 3 on mobile and 1, 2, 3 on desktop. However, the layout breaks down on desktop views.

The Root Cause: Incompatible Row Wrap with Flex

The issue stems from the fact that flexbox is a row wrap system, meaning items wrap into new rows. In our desired layout, we wish for one item to wrap under another within the same row. This is not possible in a straight flex container.

Flex items are confined to straight, unbending rows, so div3 cannot wrap under div2 while maintaining a row wrap. This results in unsightly gaps and a broken layout.

Nested Containers and Column Wrap

One possible solution is to nest div2 and div3 within their own container, making it a sibling to div1. This new container can then become a flex container with column wrap, eliminating the gaps and aligning the items correctly.

However, in this scenario, the nested flex container violates the requirement for all items to have the same parent, as the order property must be applied to the parent elements.

Exploring Column Wrap

An alternative approach is to use column wrap instead of row wrap for the container. By setting the container's flex-direction to column and providing a fixed height, we can control where the items wrap.

This technique allows us to achieve the desired re-arrangement for both mobile and desktop views, as demonstrated in the provided CSS and HTML code snippet.

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