CSS overflow-y Property

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The overflow-y property specifies whether the content should be hidden, visible or scrolls vertically when the content overflows the element’s top and bottom edges. This property is one of the CSS3 properties.

The overflow-y property has four main values: visible, hidden, auto and scroll.

If the value of overflow-y is set to visible, the value of overflow-x, by default, will be set to visible. If the value of overflow-y is set to scroll, auto, or hidden, the value of overflow-x will be set to auto.

Initial Value	visible
Applies to	Block-containers, flex containers and grid containers.
Inherited	No.
Animatable	No.
Version	CSS3
DOM Syntax	object.style.overflowY = "auto";

The overflow-x property can be used to define clipping the right and left sides.

Syntax

overflow-y: visible | hidden | scroll | auto | initial | inherit;

Example of the overflow-y property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.scroll {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        height: 60px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: scroll;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: scroll</h3>
    <div class="scroll">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

Example of the overflow-y property with the "visible" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.visible {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        color: #666;
        height: 40px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: visible;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: visible</h3>
    <div class="visible">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the overflow-y property with the "hidden" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.hidden {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        height: 60px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: hidden;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: hidden</h3>
    <div class="hidden">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the overflow-y property with the "auto" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.auto {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        height: 60px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: auto;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: auto</h3>
    <div class="auto">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the overflow-y property with all the values:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.scroll {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: scroll;
      }
      div.hidden {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: hidden;
      }
      div.auto {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: auto;
      }
      div.visible {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: visible;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>overflow-y: scroll</h3>
    <div class="scroll">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-y: hidden</h3>
    <div class="hidden">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-y: auto</h3>
    <div class="auto">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-y: visible</h3>
    <div class="visible">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Values

Value	Description	Play it
visible	The content is not clipped and renders outside the padding box's top and bottom edges. This is the default value of this property.	Play it »
hidden	The content is clipped to fit vertically in the padding box. No scrollbar is added.	Play it »
scroll	The content is clipped to fit vertically in the padding box. The scrollbar is added to see the rest of the content.	Play it »
auto	The content is clipped to fit vertically in the padding box. Depends on the browser. If content overflows, scrollbar is added.	Play it »
initial	Makes the property use its default value.	Play it »
inherit	Inherits the property from its parents element.