html - Shrink one column's height to content and stretch the other to the same height

Question

We have a two-column layout, with a blue and a green column. It should behave after the following conditions:

• Both columns have equal width.

• The blue column height shall be determined on its content height, without giving any regard to the green column.

• The green column should always have the same height as the blue one. So the height of the green column should be entirely determined by the height of the blue column / the content of the blue column.

• The gray image positioned within the green column should stretch to the height of the green column but preserving dimensions.

Is there a way of achieving this using flexbox or other CSS techniques?

Answer 1

You could do like this, where you use a absolute position wrapper in the right column, which will always keep same size as the left, and if to much content, it scrolls

html, body {
  margin: 0;
}
.container, .left-column {
  display: flex;
}
.left-column {
  flex: 1;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  background: #69f;
}
.left-items {  
  flex-basis: calc(50% - 10px);
  margin: 5px;
  background: lightgray;
}
.right-column {
  flex: 1;
  position: relative;
  background: #6f6;
}
.right-wrapper {
  position: absolute;
  left: 5px; top: 5px;
  right: 5px; bottom: 5px;
  background: lightgray;
  overflow: auto;
}

<div class="container">

  <div class="left-column">

    <div class="left-items">    
Content will push height here<br>
    </div>    
    <div class="left-items">    
      Content will push height here<br>
    </div>    
    <div class="left-items">    
      Content will push height here<br>
    </div>    
    <div class="left-items">    
      Content will push height here<br>
    </div>    
    <div class="left-items">    
      Content will push height here<br>
    </div>    
    <div class="left-items">    
      Content will push height here<br>
    </div>    

  </div>

  <div class="right-column">
    <div class="right-wrapper">
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
      Content will scroll here<br>
    </div>    
  </div>
  
</div>