I have a div
tag containing several ul
tags.
I'm able to set CSS properties for the first ul
tag only:
div ul:first-child {
background-color: #900;
}
However, my following attempts to set CSS properties for each other ul
tag except the first one don't work:
div ul:not:first-child {
background-color: #900;
}
div ul:not(:first-child) {
background-color: #900;
}
div ul:first-child:after {
background-color: #900;
}
How can I write in CSS: "each element, except the first"?
One of the versions you posted actually works for all modern browsers (where CSS selectors level 3 are supported):
div ul:not(:first-child) {
background-color: #900;
}
If you need to support legacy browsers, or if you are hindered by the :not
selector's limitation (it only accepts a simple selector as an argument) then you can use another technique:
Define a rule that has greater scope than what you intend and then "revoke" it conditionally, limiting its scope to what you do intend:
div ul {
background-color: #900; /* applies to every ul */
}
div ul:first-child {
background-color: transparent; /* limits the scope of the previous rule */
}
When limiting the scope use the default value for each CSS attribute that you are setting.
This CSS2 solution ("any ul
after another ul
") works, too, and is supported by more browsers.
div ul + ul {
background-color: #900;
}
Unlike :not
and :nth-sibling
, the adjacent sibling selector is supported by IE7+.
If you have JavaScript changes these properties after the page loads, you should look at some known bugs in the IE7 and IE8 implementations of this. See this link.
For any static web page, this should work perfectly.
ul ul div ul
(where these elements are siblings), only the second ul will be selected, since the last one does not have a ul
previous to itself
Since :not
is not accepted by IE6-8, I would suggest you this:
div ul:nth-child(n+2) {
background-color: #900;
}
So you pick every ul
in its parent element except the first one.
Refer to Chris Coyer's "Useful :nth-child Recipes" article for more nth-child
examples.
not(:first-child)
does not seem to work anymore. At least with the more recent versions of Chrome and Firefox.
Instead, try this:
ul:not(:first-of-type) {}
ul:not(:first-child)
means literally "any ul
element that is not first child of its parent", so it won't match even the 1st ul
if it's preceded by another element (p
, heading etc.). On the contrary, ul:not(:first-of-type)
means "any ul
element except the 1st ul
in the container". You are right that OP probably needed the latter behavior, but your explanation is rather misleading.
You can use "first-child" pseudo-class inside the "not()" pseudo-class.
div ul:not(:first-child){ background-color: #900; }
Alternative ways,
With "nth-child()", It will select nth number of child.
div ul:not(:nth-child(1)){ background-color: #900; }
With "nth-of-type()", It will select nth number of element of its parent. div ul:not(:nth-of-type(1)){ background-color: #900; }
div ul:not(:nth-last-child(4)){ background-color: #900; }
With "nth-last-of-type()", It will select nth number of element of its parent counting from the last child. If you have 4 "ul" tags, you can write like this.
div ul:not(:nth-last-of-type(4)){ background-color: #900; }
These are some of the best ways to handle these kind of situations.
div li~li {
color: red;
}
Supports IE7
You can use any selector with not
p:not(:first-child){}
p:not(:first-of-type){}
p:not(:checked){}
p:not(:last-child){}
p:not(:last-of-type){}
p:not(:first-of-type){}
p:not(:nth-last-of-type(2)){}
p:not(nth-last-child(2)){}
p:not(:nth-child(2)){}
You can use your selector with :not
like bellow you can use any selector inside the :not()
any_CSS_selector:not(any_other_CSS_selector){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
you can use :not without parent selector as well.
:not(:nth-child(2)){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
More examples
any_CSS_selector:not(:first-child){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:first-of-type){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:checked){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:last-child){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:last-of-type){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:first-of-type){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:nth-last-of-type(2)){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:nth-last-child(2)){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:nth-child(2)){
/*YOUR STYLE*/
}
I didn't have luck with some of the above,
This was the only one that actually worked for me
ul:not(:first-of-type) {}
This worked for me when I was trying to have the first button displayed on the page not be effected by a margin-left option.
this was the option I tried first but it didn't work
ul:not(:first-child)
As I used ul:not(:first-child)
is a perfect solution.
div ul:not(:first-child) {
background-color: #900;
}
Why is this a perfect because by using ul:not(:first-child)
, we can apply CSS on inner elements. Like li, img, span, a
tags etc.
But when used others solutions:
div ul + ul {
background-color: #900;
}
and
div li~li {
color: red;
}
and
ul:not(:first-of-type) {}
and
div ul:nth-child(n+2) {
background-color: #900;
}
These restrict only ul level CSS. Suppose we cannot apply CSS on li
as `div ul + ul li'.
For inner level elements the first Solution works perfectly.
div ul:not(:first-child) li{
background-color: #900;
}
and so on ...
li + li {
background-color: red;
}
div ul::nth-child(n+2){
background-color: #900;
}
Is working too
Success story sharing