Making Columns Render with Equal Height (See related posts)

A problem sometimes faced by web developers is trying to get two (or more) columns in a multi-column layout to be the same height when the content is variable. Rather than using an arbitrary hardcoded value, the heights can be equalized (to the tallest one) with this script.

Assuming two columns in div tags with ids of "leftside" and "rightside" this script will set the height of the shorter to the height of the taller one. The page must be in standards compliant mode with a valid doctype or IE will mess it up in quirks mode. For longer articles and discussion visit my home site... ERT

   1  
   2  <script type="text/javascript">
   3  function setH()
   4  {
   5     var maxH = Math.max(document.getElementById('leftside').offsetHeight,document.getElementById('rightside').offsetHeight);
   6     document.getElementById('leftside').style.height=maxH+'px';
   7     document.getElementById('rightside').style.height=maxH+'px';
   8  }
   9  onload=setH;
  10  </script>