CSS: DIV containing no height on float set

Question

Given the following code:

<div id='upperDiv' style='min-height:200px'>
     <div id='rightDiv' style='float:right; width:75%'>
       content1
     </div>  
     <div id='leftDiv' style='float:left; width:25%'>
       content2
     </div>
</div>
<div id='lowerDiv' style='height:50px; margin-top:5px'>
   content3
</div>

When content of rightDiv and leftDiv passes the 200px height (the value of min-height), upperDiv does not grow, so its content overlaps the lower div.

If the float attribute is removed from the large content, it grows and causes problems.

I do not know which of rightDiv or leftDiv exceeds 200px inheight.

How can this be fixed?

Answer 1

Set #upperDiv any of the following:

overflow: hidden;
width: 100%;

or

float: left;
width: 100%;

or create a rule using CSS pseudo-elements (IE8+ compatible) like this

#upperDiv:after {
  content: "";
  display: table;
  clear: both;
}

Best solution
Creating a reusable class rule like the following.

.group:after {
  content: "";
  display: table;
  clear: both;
}

Now you can apply it to anything that needs this same functionality. For example...

<div id='upperDiv' class="group" ... >

P.S. If you require IE 6/7 compatibility, checkout this post.