Question:
Is there an efficient way to select every nth element in a set of elements, without listing each element individually?
Answer:
Yes, using the :nth-child() pseudo-class with arithmetic expressions, you can select elements based on their position in the child list.
The syntax of :nth-child() allows for various arithmetic operations, including:
To select every fourth element, for example, use the following selector:
:nth-child(4n)
This expression starts the count at 0, so it will select:
Note: If you have elements of different types (e.g., div, h1, p) within the parent element, you should use :nth-of-type() instead of :nth-child() to ensure you only count elements of the specified type.
Example:
Assuming the following HTML:
<body> <h1></h1> <div>1</div> <div>2</div> <div>3</div> <div>4</div> <h2></h2> <div>5</div> <div>6</div> <div>7</div> <div>8</div> <h2></h2> <div>9</div> <div>10</div> <div>11</div> <div>12</div> <h2></h2> <div>13</div> <div>14</div> <div>15</div> <div>16</div> </body>
To select every fourth div element, use:
div:nth-of-type(4n)
This will select:
Special Case:
Using 4n is equivalent to 4n 4 in terms of :nth-child(). This is because the count starts at 0. Therefore, the following selectors will select the same elements:
However, this may not always be the case for other nth operators and values.
The above is the detailed content of How Can I Efficiently Select Every Nth Element in CSS?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!