CSS white-space Property

Posted in CSS Tutorial

Updated on Jul 14, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 25 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

💬 1 Comment

Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

The white-space property in CSS is used to control how white space inside an element is handled. This includes spaces, tabs, and newline characters.

By using the white-space property, you can manage how text is displayed, whether it's preserving spaces, wrapping lines, or collapsing whitespace.

💡 Syntax

The syntax for the white-space property is simple and can be applied to any element.

Syntax

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element {
  white-space: value;
}

Here, value can be one of several predefined keywords that dictate how white space is treated.

🎛️ Default Value

The default value of the white-space property is normal. This means that sequences of white space will collapse into a single space, and lines will wrap as necessary to fit within the block container.

🏠 Property Values

Value	Description
normal	Collapses whitespace and breaks lines as needed.
nowrap	Collapses whitespace but prevents line breaks.
pre	Preserves whitespace and line breaks.
pre-wrap	Preserves whitespace but still wraps lines when necessary.
pre-line	Collapses whitespace but preserves line breaks.
break-spaces	Preserves whitespace, including spaces at the end of lines, and only breaks at allowed break points.

📄 Example

In this example, we'll demonstrate how different values of the white-space property affect text display.

index.html

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>CSS white-space Example</title>
  <style>
    .normal {
      white-space: normal;
    }
    .nowrap {
      white-space: nowrap;
    }
    .pre {
      white-space: pre;
    }
    .pre-wrap {
      white-space: pre-wrap;
    }
    .pre-line {
      white-space: pre-line;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>White-space Property Examples</h1>
  <div class="normal">
    This is an example     of white-space: normal.   
    This text will wrap normally and    extra spaces will be collapsed.
  </div>
  <br>
  <div class="nowrap">
    This is an example of white-space: nowrap. This text will not wrap to the next line.
  </div>
  <br>
  <div class="pre">
    This is an example     of white-space: pre.
    This text will preserve        spaces and line breaks.
  </div>
  <br>
  <div class="pre-wrap">
    This is an example     of white-space: pre-wrap.
    This text will preserve        spaces and line breaks, but also wrap when necessary.
  </div>
  <br>
  <div class="pre-line">
    This is an example     of white-space: pre-line.
    This text will collapse spaces but preserve line breaks.
  </div>
</body>
</html>

🖥️ Browser Compatibility

The white-space property is well-supported in all modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. This ensures that your text formatting will be consistent across different platforms.

🎉 Conclusion

The white-space property is an essential tool for web developers when it comes to managing text display.

Whether you need to preserve formatting or ensure that text wraps correctly, the white-space property provides the flexibility to handle whitespace in a way that suits your design needs. Experiment with the different values to see how they can enhance the readability and layout of your content.