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CSS CSS Layout Basics Positioning Page Content Positioning Elements Relative to Other Elements

Posted by jlampstack
jlampstack
23,932 Points

Is relative positioning only meant for parent containers?

I just want to verify my understanding. From what I've gathered so far, absolute gives the element and absolute position that is relative to the first parent container that has a position of relative.

So with that being said. Is there ever a scenario where we'd use relative on the element itself, or is its only job to tell absolute positioning where to position the element in relation to?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

You can use relative positioning on individual elements.

Besides establishing a positioning context for any descendants, with this property set you can apply offsets (such as "top" and "left") to cause the element to appear in a different place than it would normally.

Note that the position of other elements around it will not be affected by this. They will still behave as if the relative-positioned element was in its default location.

Example:

code.html 
<span>World</span>Hello,
styles.css 
span {
  position: relative;
  left: 5em;
}