When flexbox items wrap in column mode, container does not grow its width

Question

I am working on a nested flexbox layout which should work as follows:

The outermost level (ul#main) is a horizontal list that must expand to the right w

Answer 1

The Problem

This looks like a fundamental deficiency in flex layout.

A flex container in column-direction will not expand to accommodate additional columns. (This is not a problem in flex-direction: row.)

This question has been asked many times (see list below), with no clean answers in CSS.

It's hard to pin this as a bug because the problem occurs across all major browsers. But it does raise the question:

How is it possible that all major browsers got the flex container to expand on wrap in row-direction but not in column-direction?

You would think at least one of them would get it right. I can only speculate on the reason. Maybe it was a technically difficult implementation and was shelved for this iteration.

UPDATE: The issue appears to be resolved in Edge v16.

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Illustration of the Problem

The OP created a useful demo illustrating the problem. I'm copying it here: http://jsfiddle.net/nwccdwLw/1/

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Workaround Options

Hacky solutions from the Stack Overflow community:

• "It seems this issue cannot be solved only with CSS, so I propose you a JQuery solution."

• "It's curious that most browsers haven't implemented column flex containers correctly, but the support for writing modes is reasonably good. Therefore, you can use a row flex container with a vertical writing mode."

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More Analysis

• Chromium Bug Report

• Mark Amery's answer

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Other Posts Describing the Same Problem

• Flex box container width doesn't grow
• How can I make a display:flex container expand horizontally with its wrapped contents?
• Flex-flow: column wrap. How to set container's width equal to content?
• Flexbox flex-flow column wrap bugs in chrome?
• How do I use "flex-flow: column wrap"?
• Flex container doesn't expand when contents wrap in a column
• flex-flow: column wrap, in a flex box causing overflow of parent container
• Html flexbox container does not expand over wrapped children
• Flexbox container and overflowing flex children?
• How can I make a flexbox container that stretches to fit wrapped items?
• Flex container calculating one column, when there are multiple columns
• Make container full width with flex
• Flexbox container resize possible?
• Flex-Wrap Inside Flex-Grow
• Flexbox grow to contain
• Expand flexbox element to its contents?
• flexbox column stretch to fit content
• https://stackoverflow.com/q/48406237/3597276
• flex-flow: column wrap doesn't stretch the parent element's width
• Why doesn't my
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  • How to have width adjust when flexbox columns wrap?
  • Flexbox wrap not increasing the width of parent?