How Do I Perfectly Center a Float Element in Between Two Floated Elements?

Question

I am finding it difficult to center a text in between two other texts.

HMTL:

<div class="main-container">
    <div class="footer">
        <span class="left_edge">@left</span>
        <span class="center">@center</span>
        <span class="right_edge">@right</span>
    </div>
</div>

CSS:

.footer{
    background: #e33;
    padding: 5px;
}
.left_edge{
    float: left;
}
.center{
    float: left;
}
.left_edge{
    float: right;
}

How do I perfectly center the .center as shown in the correctly marked image?

Answer 1

One approach would be to set the display of the middle element to inline-block and then use text-align: center on the parent element for horizontal centering:

Example Here

.footer {
    background: #e33;
    padding: 5px;
    text-align: center;
}
.left_edge {
    float: left;
}
.center {
    display: inline-block;
}
.right_edge {
    float: right;
}

Alternatively, you could avoid floating the elements, and use the following method instead:

Example Here

.footer > span {
    display: inline-block;
    width: 33.333%
}
.left_edge {
    text-align: left;
}
.center {
    text-align: center;
}
.right_edge {
    text-align: right;
}