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What is white-space css property and how does it work

The white-space CSS property sets how white space and line break inside an element are handled.

There are 5 possible values for white-space property:

white-space: normal | nowrap | pre | pre-line | pre-wrap;
WrappingNew lineSpaces
normalyescollapsecollapse
nowrapnocollapsecollapse
prenopreservedpreserve
pre-lineyespreservedcollapse
pre-wrapyespreservedpreserve

normal​

  • Collapses whitespace
  • Collapses newlines
  • Breaks lines only at the content is overflowing the container's width

nowrap​

  • Collapses whitespace
  • Collapses newlines
  • Prevents the text from wrapping

pre​

  • Preserves whitespace
  • Preserves newlines
  • Prevents the text from wrapping

pre-line​

  • Preserves whitespace
  • Preserves newlines
  • Breaks lines only at the content is overflowing the container's width

pre-wrap​

  • Preserves whitespace
  • Preserves newlines
  • Breaks lines at newlines, and as necessary to fill line boxes

Example​

white-space-example

Source code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <style>
      .white-space-normal {
        width: 200px;
        background-color: aquamarine;
        white-space: normal;
      }
      .white-space-nowrap {
        width: 200px;
        background-color: aquamarine;
        white-space: nowrap;
      }
      .white-space-pre {
        width: 200px;
        background-color: aquamarine;
        white-space: pre;
      }
      .white-space-pre-line {
        width: 200px;
        background-color: aquamarine;
        white-space: pre-line;
      }
      .white-space-pre-wrap {
        width: 200px;
        background-color: aquamarine;
        white-space: pre-wrap;
      }
    </style>
    <title>Document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>normal</h2>
    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <div class="white-space-normal">
      xxxx    
      Xxx 
      Xxx           xxxxx       xxxxxxxxxxxx
    </div>

    <h2>no-wrap</h2>
    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <div class="white-space-nowrap">
      xxxx    
      Xxx 
      Xxx           xxxxx      xxxxxxxxxxxx
    </div>

    <h2>pre</h2>
    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <div class="white-space-pre">
      xxxx    
      Xxx 
      Xxx           xxxxx      xxxxxxxxxxxx
    </div>

    <h2>pre-line</h2>
    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <div class="white-space-pre-line">
      xxxx    
      Xxx 
      Xxx           xxxxx      xxxxxxxxxxxx
    </div>

    <h2>pre-wrap</h2>
    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <div class="white-space-pre-wrap">
      xxxx    
      Xxx 
      Xxx           xxxxx      xxxxxxxxxxxx
    </div>
  </body>
</html>