Using CSS, how to create a two-column grid with equal-width columns that are “only as narrow as required”?

Answer 1

After fiddling around with this for quite a while and getting a very helpful answer to another question that was related to this one, I managed to finally find a solution:

.linkgrid {
  max-width: 50%;
  display: table;
}

.gridentry:nth-child(odd) {
  float: left;
  width: 100%;
}

.gridentry:nth-child(even) {
  width: 100%;
  margin-left: 100%;
  margin-right: -100%;
}

.gridentry:nth-child(even):after {
  content: '';
  display: block;
  clear: left;
}

.gridentry > * {
  display: block;
  
  margin-bottom: 10px;
  padding: 10px;

  background-color: red;
  text-align: center;

  /* This is helpful if the texts get too long to break them "naturally": */
  /* word-break: break-all; */
}

.gridentry:nth-child(odd) > * {
  margin-right: 5px;
}

.gridentry:nth-child(even) > * {
  margin-left: 5px;
}

.gridentry a {
  color: white;
}

  

    Loooooooooooooong
  
  

    Short
  
  

    Meeeedium
  
  

    Short
  
  

    Short