Left, Right and Center Align Child div under Parent Div Container

Question

I want to align child Div under my Parent Div based on its class to left, right or Center.

I have done the following,

.container{
  border:1px solid;
  padding:1px;
  width:100%;
  margin:1px;
}

.left-item{
  float:left;
  padding:auto;
  margin:1px;
}

.center-item{  
   padding:auto;
  margin:1px;
 }

.right-item{
 float:right;
 padding:auto;
  margin:1px;
}

<div class="container">        
    <button class="left-item">Left</button> <button class="center-item">Center 2</button> <button class="right-item">Right</button> <button class="left-item">Left</button> <button class="right-item">Right</button> <button class="center-item">Center 1</button> <button class="center-item">Center 3</button>        
</div>

I am unable to align child Divs to center to parent Divs. Can any one help me with this?

Answer 1

A simpler way to divide a box into left, center and right is using CSS flexbox. By wrapping left, center and right in a new div and turning your container into a flexbox with display:flex you are able to emulate this behavior with much less code.

.container {
  border: 1px solid;
  padding: 1px;
  width: 100%;
  margin: 1px;
  display:flex;
  justify-content:space-between;
}

<div class="container">
  <div>
    <button>Left</button>
    <button>Left</button>
  </div>
  <div>
    <button>Center 2</button>
    <button>Center 1</button>
    <button>Center 3</button>
  </div>
  <div>
    <button>Right</button>
    <button>Right</button>
  </div>
</div>