css grid of squares with flexbox

Question

I am trying to create a responsive grid of squares. The squares should resize to fit the viewport's width. The squares should not resize when changing the viewport's height.

I got how to adjust the width of each square, but I don't know how to make the elements square and how to scale their height when the viewport width changes.

In the example at the fiddle below the seven squares should always fit horizontally, and they should scale as squares. I do not care how many rows are visible.

Fiddle here http://jsfiddle.net/gonyhvz8/11/

<body>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>

.flex-container {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  list-style: none;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
  -webkit-flex-flow: row;
  justify-content: space-around;
  height: 50px;
  line-height:30px;
}

.flex-item {
  background: tomato;
  margin: 5px;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 1.5em;
  text-align: center;
  flex: 1 0 0px;
  height: auto;
}

It's not using flexbox, but this seems like it meets your other requirements: http://stackoverflow.com/a/20457076/717383 — James Montagne, Mar 27 '15 at 18:44

G-Cyrillus · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-15T14:31:45.677

edit 2022 Nowdays, aspect-ratio becomes widely avalaible. set a width or an height then for a square use the 1/1 ratio : aspect-ratio: 1 / 1 ;

ressources:

tutorial https://css-tricks.com/almanac/properties/a/aspect-ratio/
description https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/aspect-ratio
browsers that understand it https://caniuse.com/?search=aspect-ratio

snippets becomes (note: no width nor height set, since we are in flex layout and flex-grow is set to 1 flex: 1 0 auto; , doing the sizing job ):

.flex-container {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    list-style: none;
    display: flex;
    justify-content: space-around; 
}
.flex-item {
    background: tomato;
    margin: 5px;
    color: white;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    text-align: center;
    flex: 1 0 auto;
    aspect-ratio: 1 / 1 ;
}

/* Item can be any kind of box from here . flex/grid/block */
.flex-item {display:grid;align-items:center;justify-content:center;}

<body>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
</body>

original answer

you should not set any size. you may use an extra element or a pseudo elemnt with vertical padding in %. this will allow you to use width as reference : a snippet to show:

.flex-container {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    list-style: none;
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -moz-box;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-flex-flow: row;
    justify-content: space-around;
   
    line-height:30px;
}
.flex-item {
    background: tomato;
    margin: 5px;
    color: white;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    text-align: center;
    flex: 1 0 auto;
    height:auto;
}
.flex-item::before {
    content:'';
    float:left;
    padding-top:100%;
}

<body>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
</body>

an inline-block element could do too, just adapt the display/behavior of the box and it's content. the magic here comes from padding:50% 0; (100% vertical padding equals width of parent). see w3c about vertical margin and padding

[edit 07/2021]about centering the content inside that square for who ever needs this too (make the square itself a flex boxe too):

.flex-container {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    list-style: none;
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -moz-box;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-flex-flow: row;
    justify-content: space-around;
   
    line-height:30px;
}
.flex-item {
    background: tomato;
    margin: 5px;
    color: white;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    text-align: center;
    flex: 1 0 auto;
    height:auto;
    
    display:flex;
    align-items:center;
    justify-content:center;
}
.flex-item::before {
    content:'';
    padding-top:100%;
}

<body>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
</body>

You may also think interesting : Responsive grid of squares within a responsive grid of squares & 4x4 grid of squares that scale up to a maximum width if this answer do not fully suits your square needs ;)

Looks like we had very similar ideas. You mention the trick being `padding: 50% 0` but you're actually using `padding-top: 100%`. Functionally equivalent but inconsistent with what's in your code. — James Montagne, Mar 27 '15 at 19:14
@JamesMontagne maybe i answered too many times on the subject,. what i say is vertical padding or margin uses width of parent as reference according to W3C specification. so a mixe of 100% and 0, or 75 and 25 doesn't matter much as long as you understood how it works to make a square. this difference written is on purpose. if this is clearly understood, then next step is to keep a ratio wich might not be square , no matter the width ;) usefull source : http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/box.html#margin-properties , http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/box.html#padding-properties — G-Cyrillus, Mar 27 '15 at 19:29
Not a problem. I fully understand that any combination adding up to 100% will work. I just thought it might be confusing to someone who didn't already understand this that you said the trick was to use `padding: 50% 0` when your code didn't use that exactly. If that was intentional then that's fine, might just have been how I read it that made it seem confusing. — James Montagne, Mar 27 '15 at 19:35
@JamesMontagne okay, i make it a bit confusing on purpose, it needs a bit of digging so it it could be remembered , my habit with people working with me. Once they got it, they pay attention to what i say and dig and even sometimes show me how i can be wrong or out of date ;) — G-Cyrillus, Mar 27 '15 at 19:45
Works great, thank you! Related question: since the height is now determined by the pseudo element it seems that I cannot vertical-align the text inside the squares... Any suggestions? — Moto, Mar 27 '15 at 20:26
Note that this *breaks* in Firefox (not in Chrome) when the children of the flex container are given `display: flex` themselves. See fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/d562oL7w/ Remove the `display: flex` declaration on the flex items to see the difference. — Adam Reis, Jul 08 '16 at 20:19
@AdamBuczynski , i guess you need to give an height too if you want sqaures. it just happens that padding-top on :before flex element comes to be unefficient cause it doesn't see the width somehow (in FF) http://jsfiddle.net/d562oL7w/1/ — G-Cyrillus, Jul 10 '16 at 17:04
For the ".flex-item:before" rule consider replacing "float:left;" with "display:block;". — Beau Smith, Sep 16 '16 at 21:10
@BeauSmith this is what the last fiddle is about with a fixed height since flex-child do not "see" its own width and makes obsolete the vertical padding if % value is used ;) — G-Cyrillus, Sep 17 '16 at 13:34
I recall reading that floats are more cpu-intensive and thus another solution w/o floats is desirable. — Beau Smith, Sep 17 '16 at 16:52

CGodo · Answer 2 · 2016-07-10T00:20:32.727

For those that also want to use display: flex inside the square divs, you need to use display: table for the :before element, otherwise the square will work with Chrome but won't work with Firefox or Edge (as of Firefox 47 and Edge 13).

In the snippet bellow, which should work for all browsers, I also demonstrate how to wrap unlimited items with percentage columns (in this case 20%) and separate them with padding and inner divs, since margins with percentages do not work correctly in FF and of course Edge.

.flex-container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: start;
  flex-wrap: wrap; 
}

.flex-cell {
  flex: 0 0 20%;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: stretch;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

.flex-cell:before {
  content: '';
  display: table;
  padding-top: 100%;
}

.flex-item {
  flex-grow: 1;
  border: 1px solid black;
  background: tomato;
  color: white;
  
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}

<body>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">7</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">8</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">9</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">10</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">11</div>
        </div>
        <div class="flex-cell">
            <div class="flex-item">12</div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>

`you need to use display: table for the :before element` really short and nice solution, thank you. — OlehZiniak, Nov 04 '16 at 11:34
This should be the accepted answer. display: table for the :before element is the only working solution! — David, Apr 14 '17 at 10:41
this doesn't work if the box has content that is taller than the width. — r3wt, Feb 05 '18 at 17:46

score 22 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

The usual trick for maintaining aspect ratio is to use the fact that percentage values of margin and/or padding top & bottom are calculated based on the width of the containing element, and not the height.

You can see a non-flex version of this question HERE

However, you would like to have flex deal with the width of your elements, not set percentage based widths. For that, I have come up with a variation of that approach that will work with flex:

.flex-item:before {
    content: "";
    display: block;
    padding-top: 100%;
    float: left;
}

The trick here is to use the :before pseudo-element to insert a 0 width element with a padding-top of 100%. That 100% is 100% of the width, meaning this element with no content will be equally as tall as its container. This will stretch the flex-item to the same height as its width:

Additionally, you will need to remove the defined height from your flex-container or the height can't grow. You also may want to add min-width: 1.5em so that your elements don't shrink below the height of the character you have in each square.

http://jsfiddle.net/gonyhvz8/14/

.flex-container {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    list-style: none;
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -moz-box;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-flex-flow: row;
    justify-content: space-around;
    line-height:30px;
}

.flex-item {
    background: tomato;
    margin: 5px;
    color: white;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    text-align: center;
    flex: 1 0 0px;
    min-width: 1.5em;
}
.flex-item:before {
    content: "";
 display: block;
 padding-top: 100%;
    float: left;
}

<body>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
        <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
        <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
</body>

Thank you so much! I like non-flex version :) – Blue Tram Feb 25 '19 at 10:26 — Blue Tram, Feb 25 '19 at 10:26

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 14 '16 at 10:41

Surely it is nice to use flexboxes, but the solution mentioned has a lack of flexability even it uses flexboxes. You are not able to adjust a floating of boxes. You are bounded to set the number of boxes per row before.

In this solution you can adapt a dynamic width of tiles/square and float them how you like. If you try this with flexboxes, you will get a problem with padding-top because it does not orientate on the given width of the containing blocks.

Solution without flexboxes but more flexability:

.flex-container {
  padding: 0;
  margin: -5px;
  font-size: 0;
  font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

.flex-item {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
  height: 0;
  width: 100%;
  padding-top: 100%;
  height: auto;
  font-size: 20px;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-align: center;
}
@media (min-width: 480px) {
  .flex-item {
    width: 33.3333%;
    padding-top: 33.3333%;
  }
}
@media (min-width: 768px) {
  .flex-item {
    width: 25%;
    padding-top: 25%;
  }
}
.flex-item-inner {
  position: absolute;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  left: 0;
  margin: 10px;
  background: tomato;
}

<body>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">
      <div class="flex-item-inner">
        <div class="flex-item-inner-content">
          1
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-item">
      <div class="flex-item-inner">
        <div class="flex-item-inner-content">
          2
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-item">
      <div class="flex-item-inner">
        <div class="flex-item-inner-content">
          3
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-item">
      <div class="flex-item-inner">
        <div class="flex-item-inner-content">
          4
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-item">
      <div class="flex-item-inner">
        <div class="flex-item-inner-content">
          5
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-item">
      <div class="flex-item-inner">
        <div class="flex-item-inner-content">
          6
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>

Link to the codepen: http://codepen.io/dailysh-it/pen/xOVydO

You are not using flexbox for the container as the original poster wanted. Also, you can indeed specify the amount of items per row with flexbox if you want. Just use flex-wrap: wrap and set the with of the items with flex: 0 0 33%, for example. — CGodo, Jul 09 '16 at 22:53

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 08 '18 at 05:27

Simplified Version of G-Cyr's Answer

.flex-container {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: row;
  justify-content: center;
}

.flex-item {
  background: tomato;
  margin: 10px;
  max-width: 50px;
  flex-grow: 1;
  flex-shrink: 0;
  flex-basis: 0;
  height: auto;
}

.flex-item:before {
  /* The psuedo-element's padding-top percentage is based on the element's width. */
  padding-top: 100%;
  content: '';
  float: left;
}

<div class="flex-container">
  <div class="flex-item">1</div>
  <div class="flex-item">2</div>
  <div class="flex-item">3</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
  <div class="flex-item">1</div>
  <div class="flex-item">2</div>
  <div class="flex-item">3</div>
  <div class="flex-item">4</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
  <div class="flex-item">1</div>
  <div class="flex-item">2</div>
  <div class="flex-item">3</div>
  <div class="flex-item">4</div>
  <div class="flex-item">5</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
  <div class="flex-item">1</div>
  <div class="flex-item">2</div>
  <div class="flex-item">3</div>
  <div class="flex-item">4</div>
  <div class="flex-item">5</div>
  <div class="flex-item">6</div>
</div>

Result

This still sets a `max-width` which is undesirable when the width should be a function of the screen size vs how many are on that row. — Douglas Gaskell, Nov 29 '21 at 06:49

Octavioamu · Answer 6 · 2018-07-04T00:53:58.583

There is a way to made it with no extra html elements also. I created a fiddle with your codebase http://jsfiddle.net/octavioamu/kq97pm3L/ but the tick is to use after elemento with display table

flex-item:after {
    content: ' ';
    padding-top: 100%;
    display: table;
}

You can use it in any grid, for example an square inside a column grid with bootstrap... Here is a sass mixin working inside a % grid column https://codepen.io/octavioamu/pen/xzeXGm

And here is with your code:

.flex-container {
  display: flex;
}

.flex-item {
  display: flex;
  width: 100%;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  background-color: red;
  margin: 5px
}

.flex-item:after {
  content: ' ';
  padding-top: 100%;
  display: table;
}

<body>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
  <div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
  </div>
</body>

css grid of squares with flexbox

6 Answers6

Simplified Version of G-Cyr's Answer

Result

Linked

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