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CSS

Posted by sarahmoore4
sarahmoore4
6,980 Points

confused by the concept of clearfix moving an element below floated elements - z-index?

I'm a bit confused by what Guil means here when he says that adding the clearfix class to the parent element, that holds floated elements, makes the parent element move below the floated elements. Does this mean that the parent's element's z-index ends up indirectly being lower than that of the floated elements? Could one word this by saying that by adding the clearfix class to the parent elements, the parent elements move behind the floated elements on the web page's z-index/axis?

1 Answer

Bert Witzel
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Bert Witzel
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 27,918 Points
Bert Witzel
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Bert Witzel
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 27,918 Points

Great question. Clearfix and z-index are two different things. You attach the clearfix to the parent element when it has floated children. Often when items are floated there is container collapse because the floated items are taken out of the normal flow. The clearfix creates an "empty" element that allows the parent element to clear its children and correct this issue.

z-index is for positioned elements only: position: absolute; position: fixed, etc. It establishes a stacking order for elements. Here is some more info on z-index.