flex-direction

The flex-direction CSS property sets how flex items are placed in the flex container defining the main axis and the direction (normal or reversed).

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

Note that the values row and row-reverse are affected by the directionality of the flex container. If its dir attribute is ltr, row represents the horizontal axis oriented from the left to the right, and row-reverse from the right to the left; if the dir attribute is rtl, row represents the axis oriented from the right to the left, and row-reverse from the left to the right.

Syntax

/* The direction text is laid out in a line */
flex-direction: row;

/* Like <row>, but reversed */
flex-direction: row-reverse;

/* The direction in which lines of text are stacked */
flex-direction: column;

/* Like <column>, but reversed */
flex-direction: column-reverse;

/* Global values */
flex-direction: inherit;
flex-direction: initial;
flex-direction: unset;

Values

The following values are accepted:

row

The flex container's main-axis is defined to be the same as the text direction. The main-start and main-end points are the same as the content direction.

row-reverse

Behaves the same as row but the main-start and main-end points are permuted.

column

The flex container's main-axis is the same as the block-axis. The main-start and main-end points are the same as the before and after points of the writing-mode.

column-reverse

Behaves the same as column but the main-start and main-end are permuted.

Accessibility concerns

Using the flex-direction property with values of row-reverse or column-reverse will create a disconnect between the visual presentation of content and DOM order. This will adversely affect users experiencing low vision navigating with the aid of assistive technology such as a screen reader. If the visual (CSS) order is important, then screen reader users will not have access to the correct reading order.

• Flexbox & the keyboard navigation disconnect — Tink
• Source Order Matters | Adrian Roselli
• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 1.3 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.2 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0

Formal definition

Formal syntax

row | row-reverse | column | column-reverse

Examples

Reversing flex container columns and rows

HTML

<h4>This is a Column-Reverse</h4>
<div id="content">
  <div class="box" style="background-color:red;">A</div>
  <div class="box" style="background-color:lightblue;">B</div>
  <div class="box" style="background-color:yellow;">C</div>
</div>
<h4>This is a Row-Reverse</h4>
<div id="content1">
  <div class="box1" style="background-color:red;">A</div>
  <div class="box1" style="background-color:lightblue;">B</div>
  <div class="box1" style="background-color:yellow;">C</div>
</div>

CSS

#content {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column-reverse;
}

.box {
  width: 50px;
  height: 50px;
}

#content1 {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row-reverse;
}

.box1 {
  width: 50px;
  height: 50px;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• CSS Flexbox Guide: Basic Concepts of Flexbox
• CSS Flexbox Guide: Ordering flex items