CSS overflow hidden and absolute position

Question

Consider following simple menu markup (automatically generated, and I do not have much control over it):

.menu {
  width: 500px;
  height: 20px;
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  /* overflow: hidden ... problem */
}
li {
  float: left;
  position: relative;
  margin-right: 30px;
}
ul li .submenu {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  display: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  list-style: none;
  width: 100px;
}
ul li:hover .submenu {
  display: block;
}

<ul class="menu">
  <li>Lorem ipsum</li>
  <li>Submenu
    <ul class="submenu">
      <li>Sub item 1</li>
      <li>Sub item 2</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>consectetur</li>
  <li>adipiscing elit</li>
  <li>Aliquam elit nisi</li>
  <li>pharetra quis</li>
  <li>nulla eget</li>
</ul>

In the above code, the menu has a fixed width, but it has more items than can fit in that width, so the rest of the items will go on the second line. I want to display only the items which can fit in first line, and want to hide the rest of them.

For that purpose I want to specify the height for the menu. I am using this CSS for the menu:

.menu {
  width: 500px;
  height: 20px;
  overflow: hidden; /* problem */
}

Problem is that The above css hides the .submenu items too. Please see the demo to understand the problem.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Lgyg2a4r/

Answer 1

For the first part of your problem, you could use white-space: nowrap on the menu and display: inline-block on its immediate children. This forces all menu items on one line and they extend past the right edge of the window.

However, this will force a horizontal scrollbar. Depending on your situation, you can add overflow-x: hidden on the element that contains the menu. That element must have other content so that it is taller than the tallest submenu.

#wrapper {
  overflow-x: hidden;
  min-height: 400px;
}
.menu {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  list-style: none;
  white-space: nowrap;
  background-color: palevioletred;
}
.menu > li {
  display: inline-block;
  margin-right: 30px;
  position: relative;
}
.submenu {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  list-style: none;
  display: none;
  background-color: paleturquoise;
}
.menu li:hover .submenu {
  display: block;
}

<div id="wrapper">
  <ul class="menu">
    <li>Lorem ipsum</li>
    <li>Submenu
      <ul class="submenu">
        <li>Sub item 1</li>
        <li>Sub item 2</li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>consectetur</li>
    <li>adipiscing elit</li>
    <li>Aliquam elit nisi</li>
    <li>pharetra quis</li>
    <li>nulla eget</li>
  </ul>
</div>

Answer 2

Following way you can do it without need of JQuery. Remove position:relative from li. And remove left, top from submenu and use negative margin will make trick.

.menu {
    width: 500px;
    height: 20px;
    list-style: none;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
     overflow: hidden  /* problem */
}

li {
    float: left;    
    margin-right: 30px;
}

ul li .submenu {
    position: absolute;
    display: none;
   list-style: none;
    width: 100px;
    margin-left: -40px;
}

ul li:hover .submenu {
    display: block;
}

<ul class="menu">
    <li>Lorem ipsum</li>
    <li >Submenu
        <ul class="submenu">
            <li>Sub item 1</li>
            <li>Sub item 2</li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>consectetur</li>
    <li>adipiscing elit</li>
    <li>Aliquam elit nisi</li>
    <li>pharetra quis</li>
    <li>nulla eget</li>
</ul>

Check Fiddle Here.

Note: not reliable but good to solve problem.