'nav bar list collapse when putting position absolute

I am trying to make a navigation bar with several elements and I am trying to make this elements list takes the height of the header/menu.

I am trying to do that by working on the positions for the divs and elements but for some reason I am not sure where my issue is that the list collapses when I make the li elements position: absolute

My code:

*{
    margin:0;
    padding: 0;
}
.navMenu ul{
    height:100%;
    position: relative;

}
.navMenu li{
    list-style-type: none;
    display: inline;
    margin-left: 40px;
    margin-right: 40px;
    font-size: 25px;
    color: white;
    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;

}
.navMenu{
    right:3%;
    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    transform: translateY(-50%);

}
.navContainer{
    position:relative;
    background-color: black;
    height: 100px;
}
.logoDiv{
    position: relative;
    height:100%;
    position: absolute;
}
.logo{
    position: absolute;
    height: 100%;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="HomeCSS.css">
    <title>Home</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="navContainer">
        <div class="logoDiv">
            <img class="logo" src="/Images/WatchMo.png" alt="WatchMo logo">
        </div>
        <div class="navMenu">
            <ul>
                <li>Home</li>
                <li>About Us</li>
                <li>Favourites</li>
                <li>My Account</li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
htmlcss


Solution 1:[1]

Position absolute sort of prevents elements from taking any space on a page. So when the only elements in navMenu have no height nor width, it will collapse.

Solution 2:[2]

When you are using position:absolute all your elements will get on left:0 and top:0 to the container with position:relative. So this why it collapse.

Here I just modify a bit your .navMenu li to make elements getting the height of your navContainer as you wish:

.navMenu li{
    list-style-type: none;
/*    display: inline;*/
    margin-left: 40px;
    margin-right: 40px;
    font-size: 20px; /* Originaly 25px */
    color: white;
/*    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;*/

}

DEMO

*{
    margin:0;
    padding: 0;
}
.navMenu ul{
    height:100%;
    position: relative;

}
.navMenu li{
    list-style-type: none;
/*    display: inline;*/
    margin-left: 40px;
    margin-right: 40px;
    font-size: 20px; /* Originaly 25px */
    color: white;
/*    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;*/

}
.navMenu{
    right:3%;
    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    transform: translateY(-50%);

}
.navContainer{
    position:relative;
    background-color: black;
    height: 100px;
}
.logoDiv{
    position: relative;
    height:100%;
    position: absolute;
}
.logo{
    position: absolute;
    height: 100%;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="HomeCSS.css">
    <title>Home</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="navContainer">
        <div class="logoDiv">
            <img class="logo" src="/Images/WatchMo.png" alt="WatchMo logo">
        </div>
        <div class="navMenu">
            <ul>
                <li>Home</li>
                <li>About Us</li>
                <li>Favourites</li>
                <li>My Account</li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 user16948466
Solution 2 MaxiGui

Related Questions