Percentage width child element in absolutely positioned parent on Internet Explorer 7

Question

I have an absolutely positioned div containing several children, one of which is a relatively positioned div. When I use a percentage-based width on the child div, it collapses to 0 width on IE7, but not on Firefox or Safari.

If I use the pixel width, it works. If the parent is relatively positioned, the percentage width on the child works.

1. Is there something I'm missing here?

2. Is there an easy fix for this besides the pixel-based width on the child?

3. Is there an area of the CSS specification that covers this?

Answer 1

Try using the code given below:

I guess you are looking for the same. 

#absdiv {

  position: absolute; 

  left: 100px; 

  top: 100px; 

  width: 80%; 

  height: 60%; 

  background: #999;

}

#pctchild {

  width: 60%; 

  height: 40%; 

  background: #CCC;

}

#reldiv {

  position: relative;

  left: 20px;

  top: 20px;

  height: 25px;

  width: 40%;

  background: red;

}

<div id="absdiv">

    <div id="reldiv"></div>

    <div id="pctchild"></div>

</div>

Note: The above code will display exactly the same in Firefox 3 (mac) and IE7.