CSS grid - grid-column Property

CSS grid-column is a shorthand property used to control the placement of a grid item within the grid container in the column direction by specifying a line, a span, or relying on automatic placement. It defines the inline-start and inline-end edges of the grid area.

The grid-column property is a shorthand for the following individual grid-related properties:

Possible Values

auto − It automatically determines the position of the grid item within the grid layout or defaults to span of 1.
<custom-ident> − If there's a line labelled with '<custom-ident>-start' or '<custom-ident>-end,' the grid item will be positioned along that line.

When using named grid areas, implicit lines are created. The grid-column: foo; specifies the start/end border of the named region, unless explicitly specified by lines such as foo-start/foo-end.

<integer> && <custom-ident>? − If a name is given, only lines with that name are considered. If there are insufficient lines with that name, all grid lines are processed as if they have that name in order to determine the correct position. An <integer> value of 0 is not valid.
span && [ <integer> || <custom-ident> ] − When a name is specified as a custom-ident, only lines with that name get considered.If there insufficient lines with that name, we consider all the grid lines on the relevant side of the grid to have that name for counting purposes. If the <integer> is not specified, the default value is 1. Negative numbers or 0 are not allowed.

Applies to

Grid items and absolutely-positioned boxes whose containing block is a grid container.

DOM Syntax

object.style.gridColumn = "auto|<custom-ident>|<integer> && <custom-ident>?|span && [ <integer> || <custom-ident> ]";

CSS grid-column - auto Value

The following example demonstrates that grid-column: auto property allows the grid item to automatically determine its column size based on its content −

<html>
<head>
<style>
   .grid-container {
      display: grid;
      grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 100px);
      color: white;
      text-align: center;
      background-color: lightgreen;
   }
   .grid-container > div {
      background-color: red;
      margin: 5px;
      padding: 5px;
   }
   .grid-item2 {
      grid-column: auto;
   }     
</style>
</head>
<body>
   <div class="grid-container">
      <div >Grid item 1</div>
      <div class="grid-item2">Grid Auto item 2</div>
      <div>Grid item 3</div>
      <div>Grid item 4</div>
      <div>Grid item 5</div>
      <div>Grid item 6</div>
   </div>
</body>
</html>

CSS grid-column - <custom-ident>

The following example sets grid-template-columns: [col1-start] 1fr [col2-start] 1fr [col3-start] 1fr; property with three columns named col1-start, col2-start, and col3-start.

grid-column: col3-start property places the fourth grid item in the third column of the grid −

<html>
<head>
<style>
   .grid-container {
      display: grid;
      grid-template-columns: [col1-start] 1fr [col2-start] 1fr [col3-start] 1fr;
      grid-template-rows: auto;
      gap: 10px;
      background-color: lightgreen;
      padding: 5px;
   }
   .grid-container > div {
      background-color: red;
      padding: 10px;
      text-align: center;
   }
   .grid-item {
      grid-column: col3-start; 
   }
</style>
</head>
<body>
   <div class="grid-container">
      <div>Grid Item 1</div>
      <div >Grid Item 2</div>
      <div>Grid Item 3</div>
      <div class="grid-item">Grid Item 4</div>
   </div>
</body>
</html>

CSS grid-column - <integer> && <custom-ident>?

The following example sets grid-template-columns: [a] 1fr [b] 1fr [a] 1fr [a]; property creates three columns named a and b.

The grid-column: 2 a; property, indicates that the second grid item starts at the second `a` named line, which is the third grid line.

The following diagram demonstrates the column layout with line:

Here is the example −

<html>
<head>
<style>
   .grid-container {
      display: grid;
      grid-template-columns: [a] 1fr [b] 1fr [a] 1fr [a];
      grid-template-rows: auto;
      background-color: lightgreen;
      padding: 5px;
   }
   .grid-container > div {
      background-color: red;
      border: 2px solid blue;
      padding: 10px;
      text-align: center;
   }
   .grid-item {
      grid-column: 2 a; 
   }
</style>
</head>
<body>
   <div class="grid-container">
      <div>Grid Item 1</div>
      <div class="grid-item">Grid Item 2</div>
      <div>Grid Item 3</div>
      <div>Grid Item 4</div>
   </div>
</body>
</html>

CSS grid-column - span Value

The following example demonstrates that grid-column: 2 / span 2 property specifies that the second grid item starts at the second column and spans two columns −

<html>
<head>
<style>
   .grid-container {
      display: grid;
      grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);
      width: 360px;
      color: white;
      text-align: center;
      background-color: lightgreen;
   }
   .grid-container > div {
      background-color: red;
      margin: 5px;
      padding: 5px;
   }
   .grid-item2 {
      grid-column:  2 / span 2;
   }   
</style>
</head>
<body>
   <div class="grid-container">
      <div >Grid item 1</div>
      <div class="grid-item2">Grid item 2</div>
      <div>Grid item 3</div>
      <div>Grid item 4</div>
      <div>Grid item 5</div>
   </div>
</body>
</html>

CSS grid-column - Related Properties

Following is the list of CSS properties related to grid-column property:

property	value
grid-column-start	Define the start position of a grid item within the grid columns.
grid-column-end	Determine the column where a grid item should end.