CSS - Make SPAN extend to end of its container / fill empty space?

Question

I have the following HTML layout for a website (powered by Network Solutions nsCommerceSpace) I am designing a theme for:

<div id="ctl00_breadcrumb" class="breadcrumb">
   <span id="ctl00_breadcrumbContent">
      <span><a href="/">[Name of Webstore]</a></span>
      <span>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;</span>
      <span><a href="/page.aspx">Page</a></span>
      <span>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;</span>
      <span>Here is a very long title of a product that is causing me much frustration because it jumps out of place.</span>
   </span>
</div>

The span tags with <span>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;</span> in them are automatically generated to separate each item.

Here is a Fiddle of my problem: http://jsfiddle.net/5fvmJ/

Is there a way I can make the last SPAN tag fill the empty space, and just end when it hits the right side? I would just use overflow: hidden; to hide the extra text.

Any ideas? I know having all SPAN's makes this tough, but it's built-in functionality of the site that I cannot change.

Answer 1

This span class did the trick for me...

span.empty_fill {
    display:block;
    overflow:hidden;
    width:100%;
    height:100%;
}

Essentially used like this...

<div class='banner'><a href='/'><span class='empty_fill' /></a></div>

Answer 2

I think I found a pure CSS solution. You only missed two things:

• You have to use only display: inline-block in the <span> tags without float: left, because floating is actually contradictory with inline-block elements.
• You have to use white-space: nowrap in the parent <div>.

This way you don't need to specify a width for anything. :)

JSFiddle demo

http://jsfiddle.net/yz9TK/

CSS

(I cleaned it up a little bit)

@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans);

body {
    background: #212121;
    color: #FFF;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumb {
    height: 45px;
    width: 960px;
    background-color: #707070;
    line-height: 45px;
    font-size: 16px;
    font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;
    border-radius: 10px;
    border: 1px solid #585858;
    text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
    -webkit-box-shadow:  0px 0px 15px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .75);
    box-shadow:  0px 0px 15px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .75);
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow: hidden;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span {
    display: inline-block;
    padding: 0px 10px;
    line-height: 45px;
    font-size: 18px;
    font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span a { 
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    color: #FFF;
    text-decoration: none;
    line-height: 45px;
    font-size: 18px;
    font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(even) {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    padding: 0;
    margin: -22px -4px -16px -4px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(1) { 
    border-radius: 10px 0px 0px 10px;
    background-color: #404040;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(2) {
    border-top: 22px solid #505050;
    border-bottom: 23px solid #505050;
    border-left: 15px solid #404040;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(3) {
    background-color: #505050;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(4) { 
    border-top: 22px solid #606060;
    border-bottom: 23px solid #606060;
    border-left: 15px solid #505050;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(5) {
    background-color: #606060;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(6) { 
    border-top: 22px solid #707070;
    border-bottom: 23px solid #707070;
    border-left: 15px solid #606060;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-child(7) { 
    background-color: #707070;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-last-child(1) {
    background-color: #707070;
}

#ctl00_breadcrumbContent span:nth-last-child(2) {
    border-top: 22px solid #707070;
    border-bottom: 23px solid #707070;
}