How to make the overflow CSS property work with hidden as value

I am having a tough time with overflow: hidden.

Basically, I am trying to hide the overflow of an unordered list which is located in a <div>.

I have no idea why this isn't working though.

Instead of hiding it, it breaks my list from a horizontal layout to a vertical layout.

The unordered list is carousel and the container is list.

Below is my CSS code;

div.body .container .images {
    background: url(/images/images-background.jpg);
    height: 62px;
    margin-bottom: 17px;
    width: 384px;
}
div.body .container .images #images-previous {
    cursor: pointer;
    float: left;
}
div.body .container .images #images-next {
    cursor: pointer;
    float: left;
}
div.body .container .images .list {
    float: left;
    overflow: hidden;
    vertical-align: top;
    width: 336px;
}
div.body .container .images .carousel {
    margin-bottom: 6px;
    margin-top: 8px;
    width: 336px;
}

Here, my HTML;

<div class="images">
    <div id="images-previous">
        <img src="/images/images-previous.jpg" width="24" height="62" alt="Previous" />
    </div>
    <div class="list">
        <ul class="carousel">
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/开发者_运维问答Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li> 
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>    
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>
            <li>
                <img src="/photogallery/23.jpg" width="44" height="44" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="thumbnail" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="over" />
                <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="Cross Bottle 8.5" Frosted/Amber/Chain/Fleur di Lis" class="under" />
            </li>
            <!--
            <cfset i=1>
                <cfloop condition="i lte images.recordcount">
                    <cfoutput>
                        <li>
                            <img src="#images.thumburl[i]#" width="44" height="44" alt="#images.alt[i]#" class="thumbnail" />
                            <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder-over.png" width="49" height="48" alt="#images.alt[i]#" class="over" />
                            <img src="/images/carousel-image-holder.png" width="49" height="48" alt="#images.alt[i]#" class="under" />
                        </li>
                    </cfoutput>
                    <cfset i=i+1>
                </cfloop>
            </cfset>
            -->
        </ul>
    </div>
    <div id="images-next">
        <img src="/images/images-next.jpg" width="24" height="62" alt="Next" />
    </div>
<div class="clear"></div>

---

Ok if anyone else is having this problem this may be your answer:

If you are trying to hide absolute positioned elements make sure the container of those absolute positioned elements is relatively positioned.

---

Actually...

To hide an absolute positioned element, the container position must be anything except for static. It can be relative or fixed in addition to absolute.

---

Evidently, sometimes, the display properties of parent of the element containing the matter that shouldn't overflow should also be set to overflow:hidden as well, e.g.:

<div style="overflow: hidden">
  <div style="overflow: hidden">some text that should not overflow<div>
</div>

Why? I have no idea but it worked for me. See https://medium.com/@crrollyson/overflow-hidden-not-working-check-the-child-element-c33ac0c4f565 (ignore the sniping at stackoverflow!)

---

In addition to provided answers:

it seems like parent element (the one with overflow:hidden) must not be display:inline. Changing to display:inline-block worked for me.

.outer {
  position: relative;
  border: 1px dotted black;
  padding: 5px;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.inner {
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  margin-left: -20px;
  top: 70%;
  width: 40px;
  height: 80px;
  background: yellow;
}

<span class="outer">
  Some text
  <span class="inner"></span>
</span>
<span class="outer" style="display:inline-block;">
  Some text
  <span class="inner"></span>
</span>

---

I did not get it. I had a similar problem but in my nav bar.

What I was doing is I kept my navBar code in this way: nav>div.navlinks>ul>li*3>a

In order to put hover effects on a I positioned a to relative and designed a::before and a::after then i put a gray background on before and after elements and kept hover effects in such way that as one hovers on <a> they will pop from outside a to fill <a>.

The problem is that the overflow hidden is not working on <a>.

What i discovered is if i removed <li> and simply put <a> without <ul> and <li> then it worked.

What may be the problem?

---

This worked for me

<div style="display: flex; position: absolute; width: 100%;">
  <div style="white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden;text-overflow: ellipsis;">
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi.
  </div>
</div>

Adding position:absolute to the parent container made it work.

PS: This is for anyone looking for a solution to dynamically truncating text.

EDIT: This was meant to be an answer for this question but since they are related and it could help someone on this question I shall also leave it here instead of deleting it.

---

Maybe u could just use de inherit property of cascading by using auto instead

<section style="overflow: hidden">
  <section style="overflow: auto">text within overflow<div>
</section>

In that way, the inner section could display besides the parent elemment