The overflow-y property specifies whether the content should be hidden, visible or scrolls vertically when the content overflows the element’s top and bottom edges. This property is one of the CSS3 properties.
The overflow-y property has four main values: visible, hidden, auto and scroll.
| Initial Value | visible |
| Applies to | Block-containers, flex containers and grid containers. |
| Inherited | No. |
| Animatable | No. |
| Version | CSS3 |
| DOM Syntax | object.style.overflowY = “auto”; |
The overflow-x property can be used to define clipping the right and left sides.
Syntax
overflow-y: visible | hidden | scroll | auto | initial | inherit;
Example of the overflow-y property:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div.scroll {
background-color: #1c87c9;
color: #fff;
height: 60px;
width: 200px;
overflow-y: scroll;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
<h3>Overflow-y: scroll</h3>
<div class="scroll">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
</body>
</html>
Result

Example of the overflow-y property with the “visible” value:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div.visible {
background-color: #8ebf42;
color: #666;
height: 40px;
width: 200px;
overflow-y: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
<h3>Overflow-y: visible</h3>
<div class="visible">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
</body>
</html>
Example of the overflow-y property with the “hidden” value:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div.hidden {
background-color: #1c87c9;
color: #fff;
height: 60px;
width: 200px;
overflow-y: hidden;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
<h3>Overflow-y: hidden</h3>
<div class="hidden">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
</body>
</html>
Example of the overflow-y property with the “auto” value:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div.auto {
background-color: #1c87c9;
color: #fff;
height: 60px;
width: 200px;
overflow-y: auto;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
<h3>Overflow-y: auto</h3>
<div class="auto">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
</body>
</html>
Example of the overflow-y property with all the values:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the document</title>
<style>
div.scroll {
background-color: #8ebf42;
height: 70px;
width: 150px;
overflow-y: scroll;
}
div.hidden {
background-color: #8ebf42;
height: 70px;
width: 150px;
overflow-y: hidden;
}
div.auto {
background-color: #8ebf42;
height: 70px;
width: 150px;
overflow-y: auto;
}
div.visible {
background-color: #8ebf42;
height: 70px;
width: 150px;
overflow-y: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
<h3>overflow-y: scroll</h3>
<div class="scroll">
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
</div>
<h3>overflow-y: hidden</h3>
<div class="hidden">
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
</div>
<h3>overflow-y: auto</h3>
<div class="auto">
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
</div>
<h3>overflow-y: visible</h3>
<div class="visible">
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
</div>
</body>
</html>