how to get my dropdown menu to appear/align

Question

So I am making a simple webpage but i can't get my dropdown to work right. at this point is no longer even appearing and when it was it appeared in a horizontal line rather than vertical.

As is it doesn't display the dropdown. What am I missing? Do I have something extra that's unneeded?

function myFunction() {
document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
 }
 window.onclick = function(e) {
if (!e.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {

var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
for (var d = 0; d < dropdowns.length; d++) {
  var openDropdown = dropdowns[d];
  if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
    openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
   }
  }
 }
}

   ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    background-color: #333;
    }

    li {
    float: left;
    }

    li a, .dropbtn {
    display: inline-block;
    color: white;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 14px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    }

    li a:hover, .dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
    background-color: red;
    }

    li.dropdown {
       display: inline-block;
    }

    .dropdown-content {
    display: none;
    position: absolute;
    background-color: #f9f9f9;
    min-width: 160px;
    box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
    }

    .dropdown-content a {
    color: black;
    padding: 12px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    display: block;
    text-align: left;
    }

    .dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #f1f1f1}

    .show {display:block;}

    <nav>
   <ul>
  <li><a href='front.html'>Home</a></li>
  <li><a href='intro.html'>Intro</a></li>
  <li><a href='how.html'>How it Works</a></li>
  <li><a href='best.html'>Using it</a></li>
  <li class ="dropdown">
   <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="dropbtn" 
   onclick="myFunction()">Examples</a>
    <ul class="dropdown-content" id="myDropdown">
    <div class="dropdown-content" id="myDropdown">
     <li><a href='saga.html'>SAGA</a></li>
     <li><a href='portfolio.html'>Portfolio Optimization</a></li>
     <li><a href='circuits.html'>Evolved Circuits</a></li>
    </div>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href='about.html'>References</a></li>
 </ul>
   </nav>

You have two elements with an ID of `"myDropdown"`, a `
` and a `
`.`document.getElementById('myDropdown').classList` will affect only the first, so the `
` will be left with `display: none`. — Heretic Monkey, Apr 18 '16 at 22:07
Possible duplicate of [Why is it a bad thing to have multiple HTML elements with the same id attribute?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7505350/why-is-it-a-bad-thing-to-have-multiple-html-elements-with-the-same-id-attribute) — Heretic Monkey, Apr 18 '16 at 22:11
@JoshGertner There is Your code with changes : https://jsfiddle.net/stwayjqw/2/ ... of source, absolutely without JavaScript, pure CSS. Explanations are in code. — nelek, Apr 18 '16 at 22:11

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 22:09

Besides the desired styles you are looking for, seems that you have an unwanted wrapper <div class="dropdown-content" id="myDropdown"> inside the ul that keep the list with display: none. Removing it works well.

function myFunction() {
document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
 }
 window.onclick = function(e) {
if (!e.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {

var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
for (var d = 0; d < dropdowns.length; d++) {
  var openDropdown = dropdowns[d];
  if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
    openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
   }
  }
 }
}

ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    background-color: #333;
    }

    li {
    float: left;
    }

    li a, .dropbtn {
    display: inline-block;
    color: white;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 14px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    }

    li a:hover, .dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
    background-color: red;
    }

    li.dropdown {
       display: inline-block;
    }

    .dropdown-content {
    display: none;
    position: absolute;
    background-color: #f9f9f9;
    min-width: 160px;
    box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
    }

    .dropdown-content a {
    color: black;
    padding: 12px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    display: block;
    text-align: left;
    }

    .dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #f1f1f1}

    .show {display:block;}

<nav>
   <ul>
  <li><a href='front.html'>Home</a></li>
  <li><a href='intro.html'>Intro</a></li>
  <li><a href='how.html'>How it Works</a></li>
  <li><a href='best.html'>Using it</a></li>
  <li class ="dropdown">
   <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="dropbtn" 
   onclick="myFunction()">Examples</a>
    <ul class="dropdown-content" id="myDropdown">
     <li><a href='saga.html'>SAGA</a></li>
     <li><a href='portfolio.html'>Portfolio Optimization</a></li>
     <li><a href='circuits.html'>Evolved Circuits</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href='about.html'>References</a></li>
 </ul>
   </nav>

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 18 '16 at 22:10

I just removed the div in the ul tag and override the li tag style for dropdown (remove the float: left fot that li tags)

function myFunction() {
document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
 }
 window.onclick = function(e) {
if (!e.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {

var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
for (var d = 0; d < dropdowns.length; d++) {
  var openDropdown = dropdowns[d];
  if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
    openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
   }
  }
 }
}

   ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    background-color: #333;
    }

    li {
    float: left;
    }
    .dropdown-content li {
     float: none !important; 
    }

    li a, .dropbtn {
    display: inline-block;
    color: white;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 14px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    }

    li a:hover, .dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
    background-color: red;
    }

    li.dropdown {
       display: inline-block;
    }

    .dropdown-content {
    display: none;
    position: absolute;
    background-color: #f9f9f9;
    min-width: 160px;
    box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
    }

    .dropdown-content a {
    color: black;
    padding: 12px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    display: block;
    text-align: left;
    }

    .dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #f1f1f1}

    .show {display:block;}

    <nav>
   <ul>
  <li><a href='front.html'>Home</a></li>
  <li><a href='intro.html'>Intro</a></li>
  <li><a href='how.html'>How it Works</a></li>
  <li><a href='best.html'>Using it</a></li>
  <li class ="dropdown">
   <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="dropbtn" 
   onclick="myFunction()">Examples</a>
    <ul class="dropdown-content" id="myDropdown">
     <li><a href='saga.html'>SAGA</a></li>
     <li><a href='portfolio.html'>Portfolio Optimization</a></li>
     <li><a href='circuits.html'>Evolved Circuits</a></li>
    </div>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href='about.html'>References</a></li>
 </ul>
   </nav>

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 22:13

function myFunction() {
  document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
}
window.onclick = function(e) {
  if (!e.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {

    var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
    for (var d = 0; d < dropdowns.length; d++) {
      var openDropdown = dropdowns[d];
      if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
        openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
      }
    }
  }
}

ul {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #333;
}

li {
float: left;
}

li a, .dropbtn {
display: inline-block;
color: white;
text-align: center;
padding: 14px 16px;
text-decoration: none;
}

li a:hover, .dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
background-color: red;
}

li.dropdown {
   display: inline-block;
}

.dropdown-content {
display: none;
position: fixed;
background-color: #f9f9f9;
min-width: 160px;
box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
}
.dropdown-content li{
 float: none;
}

.dropdown-content a {
color: black;
padding: 12px 16px;
text-decoration: none;
display: block;
text-align: left;
}

.dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #f1f1f1}

.show {
 display:block;
    }

<nav>
  <ul>
    <li><a href='front.html'>Home</a></li>
    <li><a href='intro.html'>Intro</a></li>
    <li><a href='how.html'>How it Works</a></li>
    <li><a href='best.html'>Using it</a></li>
    <li class ="dropdown">
      <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="dropbtn" 
         onclick="myFunction()">Examples</a>
      <ul class="dropdown-content" id="myDropdown">
        <li><a href='saga.html'>SAGA</a></li>
        <li><a href='portfolio.html'>Portfolio Optimization</a></li>
        <li><a href='circuits.html'>Evolved Circuits</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a href='about.html'>References</a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

you should add position: fixed; to the .dropdown-content class, .dropdown-content li should be have float: none; to get a dropdown original effect.

how to get my dropdown menu to appear/align

3 Answers3