flex-direction

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2020.

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).

Try it

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

css
/* 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: revert;
flex-direction: revert-layer;
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 opposite to the content direction.

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 opposite to the content direction.

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.

Formal definition

Initial valuerow
Applies toflex containers
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete

Formal syntax

flex-direction = 
  row             |
  row-reverse     |
  column          |
  column-reverse

Examples

Reversing flex container columns and rows

HTML

html
<h4>This is a Column-Reverse</h4>
<div id="col-rev" class="content">
  <div class="box red">A</div>
  <div class="box lightblue">B</div>
  <div class="box yellow">C</div>
</div>
<h4>This is a Row-Reverse</h4>
<div id="row-rev" class="content">
  <div class="box red">A</div>
  <div class="box lightblue">B</div>
  <div class="box yellow">C</div>
</div>

CSS

css
.content {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid #c3c3c3;
  display: flex;
}

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

#col-rev {
  flex-direction: column-reverse;
}

#row-rev {
  flex-direction: row-reverse;
}

.red {
  background-color: red;
}

.lightblue {
  background-color: lightblue;
}

.yellow {
  background-color: yellow;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1
# flex-direction-property

Browser compatibility

Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
flex-direction
column
column-reverse
row
row-reverse

See also