How to align on the right an inline-block element?

Question

As you can see in the following Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/EvWc4/3/, I'm currently searching a way to align the second link (link-alt) to the right side of its parent (p).

Why not using float or position:absolute you'll say, well the main reason is that I like the fact that the links' display (inline-block) property allow them to be verticaly aligned in a naturally kind of way.

By using float or position:absolute; I'll be forced to calculate and put some extra margin-top or top value to vertically aligned the links.

Here is the code but better see the Fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/EvWc4/3/ :

    <p>
        <a href="#" class="link">link</a>
        <a href="#" class="link link-alt">link alt</a>
    </p>

    p {
       padding: 20px;
       background: #eee;
    }
    .link {
       display: inline-block;
       padding: 10px;
       background: #ddd;
    }
    .link-alt { padding: 20px; }

Answer 1

To do this with CSS3 you can use the flex box model

HTML:

<div class="content">
    <div class="box box1"><a>Link 1</a></div>
    <div class="box box2"></div>
    <div class="box box3"><a>Link 2</a></div>
</div>

CSS:

.content {
    display: box;
    box-orient: horizontal;
    box-pack: center;
    box-align: center;
}
.box2 {
    box-flex: 1;
}

(needs vendor prefixes)

http://jsfiddle.net/EvWc4/18/

Answer 2

CSS3 flex and grid items are supposed to address these issues, but standard support remains spotty as of 2013.

Back to the real world. I don't think it is possible to do this purely in CSS2.1 (IE8+) without pixel hacks. The thing is, text alignment is controlled by the parent element, and since the two anchors share their parent, they either both align to the left or to the right. And justify doesn't work on the last line.

If you can suffer a little additional HTML, there are two approaches:

1) Add another inline that is guaranteed to wrap the line, and then try to hide the empty line. This allows you to use text-align justify on the parent.

<p>
    <a href="#" class="link">link</a>
    <a href="#" class="link link-alt">link alt</a>
    <span class="boom"></span>
</p>

<style type="text/css">
    p {
        padding: 20px;
        background: #eee;
        text-align: justify
    }

    .link {
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 10px;
        background: #ddd;
    }

    .link-alt {
        padding: 20px;
    }

    span {
        display: inline-block;
        height: 0;
        width: 100%
    }
</style>

Pros: works on any number of inline blocks, not just two. Only a little extra HTML required.

Cons: takes extra effort to hide the last (empty) line of text (setting the inline block inside of it to 0 height won't help you), and you're going to have to fiddle with margins or something else to make it really work. Further discussion: How do I *really* justify a horizontal menu in HTML+CSS?

2) Add another layer of inline blocks on top of your anchor tags and size them to 50%. Then you can apply separate text-align to get the final layout you requested. It is important that no whitespace is allowed between two inline blocks sized to 50%, or you'll wrap the line.

<p>
    <span class="left">
        <a href="#" class="link">link</a>
    </span><span class="right">
        <a href="#" class="link link-alt">link alt</a>
    </span>
</p>

<style type="text/css">
    p {
        padding: 20px;
        background: #eee;
    }

    .link {
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 10px;
        background: #ddd;
    }

    .link-alt {
        padding: 20px;
    }

    span {
        display: inline-block;
        width: 50%
    }

    .left {
        text-align: left
    }

    .right {
        text-align: right
    }
</style>

Pros: produces the exact layout you requested without polluting the outer box model.

Cons: only works for two inline blocks (you can try to extend it, but it quickly gets really complicated). Relies on having no extra whitespace, which could jeopardize your nicely formatted markup.