How To Create a Dropdown Menu With CSS and JavaScript
THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB DEVELOPER SITE
×

HOW TO

HowTo Home

Menus

Icon Bar Menu Icon Accordion Tabs Vertical Tabs Tab Headers Full Page Tabs Top Navigation Responsive Topnav Search Bar Fixed Sidebar Side Navigation Fullscreen Navigation Off-Canvas Menu Hover Sidenav Buttons Horizontal Scroll Menu Vertical Menu Bottom Navigation Responsive Bottom Nav Bottom Border Nav Links Right Aligned Menu Links Centered Menu Links Fixed Menu Slide Down Bar on Scroll Hide Navbar on Scroll Sticky Navbar Hover Dropdowns Click Dropdowns Dropdown in Topnav Dropdown in Sidenav Resp Navbar Dropdown Dropup Mega Menu Pagination Breadcrumbs Button Group Vertical Button Group Sticky Social Bar Responsive Header

Images

Slideshow Slideshow Gallery Modal Images Lightbox Responsive Image Grid Image Grid Tab Gallery Image Overlay Fade Image Overlay Slide Image Overlay Zoom Image Overlay Title Image Overlay Icon Image Effects Black and White Image Image Text Image Text Blocks Transparent Image Text Full Page Image Form on Image Hero Image Side-by-Side Images Rounded Images Avatar Images Responsive Images Center Images Thumbnails Meet the Team Sticky Image Flip an Image Shake an Image Portfolio Gallery Portfolio with Filtering Image Zoom Image Magnifier Glass Image Comparison Slider

Buttons

Alert Buttons Outline Buttons Split Buttons Animated Buttons Fading Buttons Button on Image Social Media Buttons Loading Buttons Download Buttons Icon Buttons Next/prev Buttons Block Buttons Text Buttons Round Buttons Scroll To Top Button

Forms

Login Form Signup Form Checkout Form Contact Form Social Login Form Register Form Form with Icons Newsletter Responsive Form Clear Input Field Copy Text to Clipboard Animated Search Search Button Fullscreen Search Custom Checkbox/Radio Custom Select Toggle Switch Check Checkbox Password Validation Toggle Password Visibility Multiple Step Form Autocomplete

Filters

Filter List Filter Table Filter Elements Filter Dropdown Sort List Sort Table

Tables

Zebra Striped Table Responsive Tables Comparison Table

More

Fullscreen Video Modal Boxes Timeline Scroll Indicator Progress Bars Skill Bar Range Sliders Tooltips Popups Collapsible Calendar HTML Includes To Do List Loaders Star Rating User Rating Overlay Effect Contact Chips Cards Profile Card Alerts Notes Labels Circles Coupon Responsive Text Fixed Footer Sticky Element Equal Height Clearfix Snackbar Scroll Drawing Sticky Header Pricing Table Parallax Aspect Ratio Toggle Like/Dislike Toggle Hide/Show Toggle Text Toggle Class Add Class Remove Class Active Class Zoom Hover Transition on Hover Arrows Shapes Browser Window Custom Scrollbar Device Look Placeholder Color Vertical Line Animate Icons Countdown Timer Typewriter Coming Soon Page Chat Messages Split Screen Testimonials Quotes Slideshow Closable List Items Typical Device Breakpoints Draggable HTML Element Trigger Button on Enter JS Media Queries Syntax Highlighter JS Animations Get Iframe Elements

Website

Make a Website Make a Website (W3.CSS) Make a Website (BS3) Make a Website (BS4) Center Website Contact Section

Grid

2 Column Layout 3 Column Layout 4 Column Layout Expanding Grid List Grid View Mixed Column Layout Blog Layout

Google

Google Maps Google Maps BW Google Translate Google Charts Google Fonts

Converters

Convert Weight Convert Temperature Convert Length Convert Speed

How TO - Clickable Dropdown


Learn how to create a clickable dropdown menu with CSS and JavaScript.


Dropdown

A dropdown menu is a toggleable menu that allows the user to choose one value from a predefined list:

Try it Yourself »

Create a Clickable Dropdown

Create a dropdown menu that appears when the user clicks on a button.

Step 1) Add HTML:

Example

<div class="dropdown">
  <button onclick="myFunction()" class="dropbtn">Dropdown</button>
  <div id="myDropdown" class="dropdown-content">
    <a href="#">Link 1</a>
    <a href="#">Link 2</a>
    <a href="#">Link 3</a>
  </div>
</div>

Example Explained

Use any element to open the dropdown menu, e.g. a <button>, <a> or <p> element.

Use a container element (like <div>) to create the dropdown menu and add the dropdown links inside it.

Wrap a <div> element around the button and the <div> to position the dropdown menu correctly with CSS.


Step 2) Add CSS:

Example

/* Dropdown Button */
.dropbtn {
    background-color: #3498DB;
    color: white;
    padding: 16px;
    font-size: 16px;
    border: none;
    cursor: pointer;
}

/* Dropdown button on hover & focus */
.dropbtn:hover, .dropbtn:focus {
    background-color: #2980B9;
}

/* The container <div> - needed to position the dropdown content */
.dropdown {
    position: relative;
    display: inline-block;
}

/* Dropdown Content (Hidden by Default) */
.dropdown-content {
    display: none;
    position: absolute;
    background-color: #f1f1f1;
    min-width: 160px;
    box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
    z-index: 1;
}

/* Links inside the dropdown */
.dropdown-content a {
    color: black;
    padding: 12px 16px;
    text-decoration: none;
    display: block;
}

/* Change color of dropdown links on hover */
.dropdown-content a:hover {background-color: #ddd}

/* Show the dropdown menu (use JS to add this class to the .dropdown-content container when the user clicks on the dropdown button) */
.show {display:block;}

Example Explained

We have styled the dropdown button with a background-color, padding, hover effect, etc.

The .dropdown class uses position:relative, which is needed when we want the dropdown content to be placed right below the dropdown button (using position:absolute).

The .dropdown-content class holds the actual dropdown menu. It is hidden by default, and will be displayed on hover (see below). Note the min-width is set to 160px. Feel free to change this. Tip: If you want the width of the dropdown content to be as wide as the dropdown button, set the width to 100% (and overflow:auto to enable scroll on small screens).

Instead of using a border, we have used the box-shadow property to make the dropdown menu look like a "card". We also use z-index to place the dropdown in front of other elements.



Step 3) Add JavaScript:

Example

/* When the user clicks on the button,
toggle between hiding and showing the dropdown content */
function myFunction() {
    document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
}

// Close the dropdown menu if the user clicks outside of it
window.onclick = function(event) {
  if (!event.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {

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

Right-aligned dropdown


Dropdown Menu in Navbar


Search (Filter) Dropdown

Tip: Go to our CSS Dropdowns Tutorial to learn more about dropdowns.

Tip: Go to our Hoverable Dropdowns to learn more about hoverable dropdowns