Html <div> leaves unexpected margins

July 25, 2024

I am new to HTML and CSS. I was experimenting with displaying <div> -s side by side. I noticed that simply adding a div inside the body will display with unexpected margins.

I tried messing about with margin, border and padding properties in my css file but nothing seems to work. the div leaves a gap to every side of the page, please help, I don’t know how to get rid of it.

The HTML:

* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

.box {
  float: left;
  width: 50%;
}

#box1 {
  background-color: grey;
}

#box2 {
  background-color: lightblue;
}

.clearfix::after {
  content: "";
  clear: both;
  display: table;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>

<body>
  <div class="clearfix">
    <div id="box1" class="box">
      <p>Some text in box 1.</p>
    </div>

    <div id="box2" class="box">
      <p>Some text in box 1.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>

</html>

>Solution :

Another option would be to set the box positions to absolute (as in this answer)

* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

.box {
  float: left;
  width: 50%;
}

#box1 {
  background-color: grey;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0px;
  top: 0px;
}

#box2 {
  background-color: lightblue;
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  top: 0px;
}

.clearfix::after {
  content: "";
  clear: both;
  display: table;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>

<body>
  <div class="clearfix">
    <div id="box1" class="box">
      <p>Some text in box 1.</p>
    </div>

    <div id="box2" class="box">
      <p>Some text in box 1.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>

</html>