Show tooltip over overflow:hidden

Question

I want to show tooltips next to items in a rather complex editor with custom scrolling. The tooltips should "escape" the container that has overflow: hidden set to limit the viewport.

Here is an example that shows the problem:

.container {
  border: 1px black solid;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.inner {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}

.row {
  display: flex;
}

.column {
  background-color: #99FF99;
  padding: 25px;
}

.tooltip-container {
  position: relative;
}

.content {
  background-color: #9999FF;
  width: 50px;
  height: 50px;
}

.tooltip {
  z-index: 1;
  background-color: #FF9999;
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  left: 100%;
  top: 0%;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.tooltip-container:hover .tooltip {
  display: inline-block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner" id="inner" style="margin-left: -40px; margin-top: -40px">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            1
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 1
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            2
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 2
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            4
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 4
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            3
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 3
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            5
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 5
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            6
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 6
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            7
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 7
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            8
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 8
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            9
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 9
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
    </div>  
  </div>
</div>

JSFiddle

Of course I searched for the problem and there are a lot solutions to the problem already. However I did not find one that solves my problem

The most cited solution is to make the tooltip position: absolute and add a wrapper outside of the div with overflow:hidden as can be seen here. This does not work in my case because the tooltip should be to the right of the item it describes. So I need the relative position on the tooltip container.

I tried wrapping the tooltip with position:relative and some offset in a wrapper with position:absolute. This did not work, as the wrapper catches the mouse hover for the tooltip. Also this means I have to know the size of the attached item.

I tried laying out the items in the tooltip-container horizontally and then use the standard position:absolute trick, but I could not make that work either.

Does anybody have an idea?

Constraints:

• the tooltip appears in a container which has overflow:hidden and should escape it
• the content in the container can be moved around
• there are no fixed sizes
• if possible it should be a CSS only solution (but most definitely no jQuery)
• the tooltip should appear to the right of the attached item (bonus points if it can appear to any side of the item)
• the tooltip may not only contain text but also other controls and inputs

Answer 1

The only CSS trick you can use is the position:fixed that you block with a null transform and you can have most of your constraints:

body {
  min-height:200vh;
  transform:translate(0,0);
}

.container {
  border: 1px black solid;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.inner {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}

.row {
  display: flex;
}

.column {
  background-color: #99FF99;
  padding: 25px;
}

.tooltip-container {
  position: relative;
}

.content {
  background-color: #9999FF;
  width: 50px;
  height: 50px;
}

.tooltip {
  z-index: 1;
  background-color: #FF9999;
  display: none;
  position: fixed;
  transform:translate(50px,-50px);
  /*left: 100%;
  top: 0%;*/
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.tooltip-container:hover .tooltip {
  display: inline-block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner" id="inner" style="margin-left: -40px; margin-top: -40px">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            1
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 1
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            2
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 2
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            4
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 4
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            3
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 3
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            5
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 5
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            6
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 6
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            7
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 7
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            8
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 8
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
      <div class="column">
        <div class="tooltip-container">
          <div class="content">
            9
          </div>
          <div class="tooltip">
            Super nice and awesome and cool and hot 9
          </div>
        </div>    
      </div>
    </div>  
  </div>
</div>