Getting grid-row to override grid-template-rows

Question

I am asking this for my own education, if it is something that is bad practice feel free to say so.

I want elements #one #two #three and #four to have their parent property grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px 100px overwritten by setting individual grid-row settings to each element.

Elements #one and #two are responding as I expect when I set them like this:

#one{
     grid-row: 1/ span 4 ; 
}

#two{
     grid-row: 1/ span 4 ; 
}

However, when I attempt to apply similar settings to #three and #four I do not get the result I expect. I expect the height of #three and #four to be exactly the same as #one and #two. Instead they fly off to the side of the page.

I expected this to display the elements similar to #one and #two. It doesn't work:

#three{
     grid-row: 2/ span 4 ; 
}


#four{
     grid-row: 2/ span 4 ; 
}

I want to know how to fix this and the correct individual values to set #three and #four to overwrite grid-template-rows as described.

Code: https://jsfiddle.net/ek2r6a19/

* {
  font-family: Helvetica;
  font-size: 1em;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

img {
  display: block;
  margin: 20px 20px;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  border-radius: 50%;
  border-width: 5px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: rgb(141, 110, 99);
  max-width: 50%;
  height: auto;
}


/*_____________________________GRID */

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 2fr;
  grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px;
  grid-gap: 10px;
}

.container div:nth-child(even) {
  background-color: orange;
}

.container div:nth-child(odd) {
  background-color: purple;
}

#one {
  grid-row: 1/ span 4;
}

#two {
  grid-row: 1/ span 4;
}


/*

I expected this to display the elements similar to #one and #two. It doesn't work
#three{
     grid-row: 2/ span 4 ; 
}


#four{
     grid-row: 2/ span 4 ; 
}

*/

<div class="container">
  <div id="one">1
    <div class="content-container">

    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="two">
    2
    <div class="content-container">
      text
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="three">3
    <div class="content-container">
      text
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="four">4
    <div class="content-container">
      text
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="five">5
    <div class="content-container">

      text
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="six">6
    <div class="content-container">
      text
    </div>
  </div>


</div>

Answer 1

You need to override the grid auto-placement algorithm, which calculates the "right" places to render grid areas, when they're not explicitly defined.

You're defining the rows. Just define the columns, as well.

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 2fr;
  grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px;
  grid-gap: 10px;
}

#one {
  grid-row: 1 / span 4;
  grid-column: 1; /* new */
}

#two {
  grid-row: 1 / span 4;
  grid-column: 2; /* new */
}

#three {
  grid-row: 2 / span 4;
  grid-column: 1; /* new */
}

#four {
  grid-row: 2 / span 4;
  grid-column: 2; /* new */
}

* {
  font-family: Helvetica;
  font-size: 1em;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

img {
  display: block;
  margin: 20px 20px;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  border-radius: 50%;
  border-width: 5px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: rgb(141, 110, 99);
  max-width: 50%;
  height: auto;
}

.container div:nth-child(even) {
  background-color: orange;
}

.container div:nth-child(odd) {
  background-color: purple;
}

<div class="container">
  <div id="one">1
    <div class="content-container"></div>
  </div>
  <div id="two">2
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="three">3
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="four">4
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="five">5
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="six">6
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
</div>

You'll notice that #one and #three, and #two and #four, don't appear to be the same height. Actually, they are.

The issue is that you've set #three and #four to start spanning at grid row line 2.

Well, #one and #two are set to start at grid row line 1, and span 4 rows, so they are overlapping #three and #four (or vice versa). You would need to start #three and #four at grid row line 5.

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 2fr;
  grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px;
  grid-gap: 10px;
  grid-auto-rows: 100px; /* added to accommodate more rows */
}

#one {
  grid-row: 1 / span 4;
  grid-column: 1;
}

#two {
  grid-row: 1 / span 4;
  grid-column: 2;
}

#three {
  grid-row: 5 / span 4;
  grid-column: 1;
}

#four {
  grid-row: 5 / span 4;
  grid-column: 2;
}

* {
  font-family: Helvetica;
  font-size: 1em;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

img {
  display: block;
  margin: 20px 20px;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  border-radius: 50%;
  border-width: 5px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: rgb(141, 110, 99);
  max-width: 50%;
  height: auto;
}

.container div:nth-child(even) {
  background-color: orange;
}

.container div:nth-child(odd) {
  background-color: purple;
}

<div class="container">
  <div id="one">1
    <div class="content-container"></div>
  </div>
  <div id="two">2
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="three">3
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="four">4
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="five">5
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
  <div id="six">6
    <div class="content-container">text</div>
  </div>
</div>