CSS Grid – Center Last Item

CSS Grid is wonderful for building multi-column layouts, but if you have one less item in your grid than you expected, it will look off balance.

To center the last one, you can double the number of columns to 4 and set each item to span 2. If the last item is odd, start on the second column so it spans columns 2 and 3.

.grid {
	display: grid;
	grid-template-columns: repeat( 4, 1fr );
}

.item {
	grid-column: span 2;
}

.item:nth-last-child(1):nth-child(odd) {
	grid-column: 2 / span 2;
}

With a bit of math and SCSS, this can be generalized to work with any number of columns.

However, I only recommend using this for two or three columns because it will only center if the last row is short by one.

.grid-on-left {
	@include grid-center-last( 2 );
}

.grid-on-right {
	@include grid-center-last( 3 );
}

@mixin grid-center-last( $columns ) {
	$total_columns: $columns * 2;
	$span: $total_columns / $columns;
	$offset: $columns - 1;
	$nth-child: if( $columns % 2 == 0, 'odd', 'even' );

	display: grid;
	grid-template-columns: repeat( $total_columns, 1fr );

	& > * {
		grid-column: span $span;

		&:nth-last-child(#{$offset}):nth-child(#{$nth-child}) {
			grid-column: $span / span $span;
		}
	}
}

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