What is Flexbox?

CSS Flexbox (Flexible Box Layout) is a CSS layout module that provides a flexible and efficient way to arrange and align elements within a container. It is designed to handle one-dimensional layouts, either horizontally or vertically, and offers powerful capabilities for creating responsive and dynamic web designs.

Flexbox introduces a set of CSS properties that define the behavior and positioning of elements within a flex container and its flex items. The key properties used in flexbox are:

• display: flex;
  

  This property is applied to the parent container, creating a flex container that enables the use of flexbox properties.

  It establishes a new flex formatting context, allowing child elements to be laid out using flexbox rules.

• flex-direction:
  

  Determines the main axis (the primary direction) of the flex container and the direction in which flex items are arranged.

  Possible values include row (left to right), row-reverse (right to left), column (top to bottom), and column-reverse (bottom to top).

• justify-content:
  

  Defines how flex items are distributed and aligned along the main axis of the flex container.

  It allows for alignment options such as flex-start (left or top), flex-end (right or bottom), center, space-between, space-around, and space-evenly.

• align-items:
  

  Specifies how flex items are aligned along the cross axis (the perpendicular axis) of the flex container.

  Values include flex-start, flex-end, center, baseline, and stretch.

• flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis:
  

  These properties control how flex items grow, shrink, and establish their initial size.

  flex-grow determines the ability of flex items to grow to fill available space.

  flex-shrink determines the ability of flex items to shrink if there is not enough space available.

  flex-basis defines the default size of flex items before they grow or shrink.

• align-self:
  

  Overrides the alignment set by align-items for an individual flex item.

  It allows customization of the alignment of specific items within the flex container.

Flexbox is well-supported in modern browsers, but older browsers may require vendor prefixes or have limited support for some properties. To ensure broader compatibility, developers often combine Flexbox with fallbacks or alternative layout techniques, such as CSS Grid or traditional block-based layout methods.