Centering flex items inside a list

Question

So I'm having a problem centering items from a menu I'm making.

I have tried to put justify-content: center but that does not seem to work. Can someone help?

Right now the menu is stuck on the left corner. I want to center it.

.header2 {
  background-color: rgb(190, 13, 13);
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  align-items: center;
  padding: 15px;
}

.menu {
  display: flex;
}

.menu li {
  margin-right: 15px;
}

.menu li a {
  display: block;
  padding: 10px;
}

<nav class="header2">
  <ul class="menu">
    <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Products</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Contacts</a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

Answer 1

The nested flexbox (.menu) is set, by default, to flex-grow: 0, which means it won't occupy the full length of the parent.

Therefore, applying justify-content: center has no effect because there's no free space available in the container.

Adding flex-grow: 1 provides the extra space you need:

Add this to your code:

.menu {
    display: flex;
    flex: 1;
    justify-content: center;
}

Also, since you're already using the semantically meaningful nav element, there's really no need for a nested list element. Try this simplified code instead:

.menu {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  background-color: rgb(190, 13, 13);
}

.menu a {
  padding: 25px 10px;
}

.menu a:hover {
  background-color: orangered;
}

<nav class="menu">
  <a href="#">Home</a>
  <a href="#">About</a>
  <a href="#">Products</a>
  <a href="#">Contacts</a>
</nav>

Answer 2

Try:

.menu {
    display: flex;
    flex-wrap: wrap;
    justify-content: space-between;
    flex-grow: 1; /* or width: 100% */
}

if you want the elements evenly distributed by all the width.

And:

.menu {
    display: flex;
    flex-wrap: wrap;
    justify-content: center;
    flex-grow: 1; /* or width: 100% */
}

otherwise.