Is there a way to get a textarea to stretch to fit its content without using PHP or JavaScript?

Question

I am filling a textarea with content for the user to edit.

Is it possible to make it stretch to fit content with CSS (like overflow:show for a div)?

Answer 1

Here is a function that works with jQuery (for height only, not width):

function setHeight(jq_in){
    jq_in.each(function(index, elem){
        // This line will work with pure Javascript (taken from NicB's answer):
        elem.style.height = elem.scrollHeight+'px'; 
    });
}
setHeight($('<put selector here>'));

Note: The op asked for a solution that does not use Javascript, however this should be helpful to many people who come across this question.

Answer 2

Another simple solution for dynamic textarea control.

<!--JAVASCRIPT-->
<script type="text/javascript">
$('textarea').on('input', function () {
            this.style.height = "";
            this.style.height = this.scrollHeight + "px";
 });
</script>

Answer 3

one line only

<textarea name="text" oninput='this.style.height = "";this.style.height = this.scrollHeight + "px"'></textarea>

Answer 4

This is a very simple solution, but it works for me:

<!--TEXT-AREA-->
<textarea id="textBox1" name="content" TextMode="MultiLine" onkeyup="setHeight('textBox1');" onkeydown="setHeight('textBox1');">Hello World</textarea>

<!--JAVASCRIPT-->
<script type="text/javascript">
function setHeight(fieldId){
    document.getElementById(fieldId).style.height = document.getElementById(fieldId).scrollHeight+'px';
}
setHeight('textBox1');
</script>

Answer 5

Not really. This is normally done using javascript.

there is a good discussion of ways of doing this here...

Autosizing textarea using Prototype