The overflow-y
CSS property sets what shows when content overflows a block-level element's top and bottom edges. This may be nothing, a scroll bar, or the overflow content.
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.
Syntax
/* Keyword values */ overflow-y: visible; overflow-y: hidden; overflow-y: clip; overflow-y: scroll; overflow-y: auto; /* Global values */ overflow-y: inherit; overflow-y: initial; overflow-y: unset;
The overflow-y
property is specified as a single keyword chosen from the list of values below.
If overflow-x
is hidden
, scroll
or auto
and this property is visible
(default) it will implicitly compute to auto
.
Values
visible
- Content is not clipped and may be rendered outside the padding box's top and bottom edges.
hidden
- Content is clipped if necessary to fit vertically in the padding box. No scrollbars are provided.
clip
- Like for
hidden
, the content is clipped to the element's padding box. The difference betweenclip
andhidden
is that theclip
keyword also forbids all scrolling, including programmatic scrolling. The box is not a scroll container, and does not start a new formatting context. If you wish to start a new formatting context, you can usedisplay: flow-root
to do so. scroll
- Content is clipped if necessary to fit vertically in the padding box. Browsers display scrollbars whether or not any content is actually clipped. (This prevents scrollbars from appearing or disappearing when the content changes.) Printers may still print overflowing content.
auto
- Depends on the user agent. If content fits inside the padding box, it looks the same as
visible
, but still establishes a new block-formatting context. Desktop browsers provide scrollbars if content overflows.
Formal definition
Initial value | visible |
---|---|
Applies to | Block-containers, flex containers, and grid containers |
Inherited | no |
Computed value | as specified, except with visible /clip computing to auto /hidden respectively if one of overflow-x or overflow-y is neither visible nor clip |
Animation type | discrete |
Formal syntax
visible | hidden | clip | scroll | auto
Examples
Setting overflow-y behavior
HTML
<ul> <li><code>overflow-y:hidden</code> — hides the text outside the box <div id="div1"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. </div> </li> <li><code>overflow-y:scroll</code> — always adds a scrollbar <div id="div2"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. </div> </li> <li><code>overflow-y:visible</code> — displays the text outside the box if needed <div id="div3"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. </div> </li> <li><code>overflow-y:auto</code> — on most browser, equivalent to <code>scroll</code> <div id="div4"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. </div> </li> </ul>
CSS
#div1, #div2, #div3, #div4 { border: 1px solid black; width: 250px; height: 100px; } #div1 { overflow-y: hidden; margin-bottom: 12px;} #div2 { overflow-y: scroll; margin-bottom: 12px;} #div3 { overflow-y: visible; margin-bottom: 120px;} #div4 { overflow-y: auto; margin-bottom: 120px;}
Result
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
CSS Overflow Module Level 3 The definition of 'overflow-y' in that specification. |
Working Draft |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
overflow-y | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1.5 | IE
Full support
5
| Opera Full support 9.5 | Safari Full support 3 | WebView Android Full support 1 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support 14 | Safari iOS Full support 1 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
clip value | Chrome No support No | Edge No support No | Firefox No support No | IE No support No | Opera No support No | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
- Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
See also
- Related CSS properties:
text-overflow
,white-space
,overflow
,overflow-x
,clip
,display