{"id":14232,"date":"2011-09-06T20:20:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T03:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/css-tricks.com\/?page_id=14232"},"modified":"2013-04-03T05:39:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T12:39:46","slug":"nth-last-child","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-last-child\/","title":{"rendered":":nth-last-child"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <code>:nth-last-child<\/code> selector allows you select one or more elements based on their source order, according to a formula. It is defined in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/selectors\/\" rel=\"noopener\">CSS Selectors Level 3 spec<\/a> as a \u201cstructural pseudo-class\u201d, meaning it is used to style content based on its relationship with parent and sibling elements. It functions the same as <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-child\"><code>:nth-child<\/code><\/a> except it selects items starting at the bottom of the source order, not the top.<\/p>\n<p>Suppose we have a list with an unknown number of items, and we wish to highlight the second-to-last item (in this exact example, the &#8220;Fourth Item&#8221;):<\/p>\n<pre rel=\"HTML\"><code class=\"language-markup\">&lt;ul&gt;\r\n  &lt;li&gt;First Item&lt;\/li&gt;\r\n  &lt;li&gt;Second Item&lt;\/li&gt;\r\n  &lt;li&gt;Third Item&lt;\/li&gt;\r\n  &lt;li&gt;Fourth Item&lt;\/li&gt;\r\n  &lt;li&gt;Fifth Item&lt;\/li&gt;\r\n&lt;\/ul&gt;<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>Rather than doing something like adding a class to the list item (e.g. <code>.highlight<\/code>) we can use <code>:nth-last-child<\/code>:<\/p>\n<pre rel=\"CSS\"><code class=\"language-css\">li {\r\n  background: slategrey;\r\n}\r\n\/* select the second-last item *\/\r\nli:nth-last-child(2) {\r\n  background: lightslategrey;\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>As you can see, <code>:nth-last-child<\/code> takes an argument: this can be a single integer, the keywords \u201ceven\u201d or \u201codd\u201d, or a formula. If an integer is specified only one element is selected \u2013 but the keywords or a formula will iterate through all the children of the parent element and select matching elements\u2014similar to navigating items in an array in JavaScript. Keywords \u201ceven\u201d and \u201codd\u201d are straightforward (2, 4, 6 etc or 1, 3, 5 respectively). The formula is constructed using the syntax <code>an+b<\/code>, where:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201ca\u201d is an integer value<\/li>\n<li>\u201cn\u201d is the literal letter \u201cn\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201c+\u201d is an operator and may be either \u201c+\u201d or \u201c-\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cb\u201d is an integer and is required if an operator is included in the formula<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is important to note that this formula is an equation, and iterates through each sibling element, determining which will be selected. The \u201cn\u201d part of the formula, if included, represents a set of increasing positive integers (just like iterating through an array). In our above example, we selected every second element with the formula <code>2n<\/code>, which worked because every time an element was checked, \u201cn\u201d increased by one (2\u00d70, 2\u00d71, 2\u00d72, 2\u00d73, etc). If an element&#8217;s order matches the result of the equation, it gets selected (2, 4, 6, etc). For a more in-depth explanation of the math involved, please read <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/how-nth-child-works\/\">this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To illustrate further, here are some examples of valid <code>:nth-last-of-type<\/code> selectors:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"codepen\" data-height=\"300\" style=\"height: 300px; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; border: 2px solid black; margin: 1rem 0; padding: 1rem; overflow: auto;\" data-type=\"result\" data-href=\"JeCmn\" data-user=\"zakkain\" data-safe=\"true\"><code><\/code><a href=\"http:\/\/codepen.io\/zakkain\/pen\/JeCmn\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out this Pen!<\/a><\/pre>\n<p>Luckily, you don&#8217;t always have to do the math yourself\u2014there are several <code>:nth-last-child<\/code> testers and generators out there:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/examples\/nth-child-tester\/#\">CSS-Tricks Tester<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/lea.verou.me\/demos\/nth.html\" rel=\"noopener\">Lea Verou&#8217;s Tester<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"points-of-interest\">Points of Interest<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><code>:nth-last-child<\/code> iterates through elements starting from the bottom of the source order. The only difference between it and <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-child\"><code>:nth-child<\/code><\/a> is that the latter iterates through elements <i>starting from the top of the source order<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>The <code>:nth-last-child<\/code> selector is very similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-last-of-type\"><code>:nth-last-of-type<\/code><\/a> but with one <b>critical difference:<\/b> it is <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/the-difference-between-nth-child-and-nth-of-type\/\">less specific<\/a>. In our example above they would produce the same result because we are iterating over only <code>li<\/code> elements, but if we were iterating over a more complex group of siblings, <code>:nth-last-child<\/code> would try to match all siblings, not only siblings of the same element type. This reveals the power of <code>:nth-last-child<\/code>\u2014it can select any sibling element in an arrangement, <i>not only elements that are specified before the colon<\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"related-properties\">Related Properties<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-child\">nth-child<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-last-of-type\">nth-last-of-type<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-of-type\">nth-of-type<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/f\/first-of-type\">first-of-type<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/l\/last-of-type\">last-of-type<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"other-resources\">Other Resources<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en-US\/docs\/CSS\/:nth-last-child\" rel=\"noopener\">Mozilla Docs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/quirksmode.org\/css\/selectors\/nthchild.html\" rel=\"noopener\">QuirksMode article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/reference.sitepoint.com\/css\/understandingnthchildexpressions\" rel=\"noopener\">Sitepoint article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"browser-support\">Browser Support<\/h3>\n<table class=\"browser-support-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th class=\"chrome\"><span>Chrome<\/span><\/th>\n<th class=\"safari\"><span>Safari<\/span><\/th>\n<th class=\"firefox\"><span>Firefox<\/span><\/th>\n<th class=\"opera\"><span>Opera<\/span><\/th>\n<th class=\"ie\"><span>IE<\/span><\/th>\n<th class=\"android\"><span>Android<\/span><\/th>\n<th class=\"iOS\"><span>iOS<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"yep\">Works<\/td>\n<td class=\"yep\">3.2+<\/td>\n<td class=\"yep\">Works<\/td>\n<td class=\"yep\">9.5+<\/td>\n<td class=\"yep\">9+<\/td>\n<td class=\"yep\">Works<\/td>\n<td class=\"yep\">Works<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><code>:nth-last-child<\/code> was introduced in CSS Selectors Module 3, which means old versions of browsers do not support it. However, modern browser support is impeccable, and the new pseudo-selectors are widely used in production environments. If you require older browser support, either <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/how-to-use-the-webshims-polyfill\/\">polyfill for IE<\/a>, or use these selectors in non-critical ways \u00e1 la progressive enhancement, which is recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The :nth-last-child selector allows you select one or more elements based on their source order, according to a formula. It is defined in the CSS Selectors Level 3 spec as a \u201cstructural pseudo-class\u201d, meaning it is used to style content based on its relationship with parent and sibling elements. It functions the same as :nth-child [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":0,"parent":14228,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-almanac-single.php","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"sig_custom_text":"","sig_image_type":"featured-image","sig_custom_image":0,"sig_is_disabled":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"c2c_always_allow_admin_comments":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14236,"url":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-last-of-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":14232,"position":0},"title":":nth-last-of-type","date":"September 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The :nth-last-of-type selector allows you select one or more elements based on their source order, according to a formula. It is defined in the CSS Selectors Level 3 spec as a \u201cstructural pseudo-class\u201d, meaning it is used to style content based on its relationship with parent and sibling elements. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14230,"url":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-child\/","url_meta":{"origin":14232,"position":1},"title":":nth-child","date":"September 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The :nth-child selector allows you to select one or more elements based on their source order, according to a formula. \/* Select the first list item *\/ li:nth-child(1) { } \/* Select the 5th list item *\/ li:nth-child(5) { } \/* Select every other list item starting with first *\/\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 19 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14234,"url":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/n\/nth-of-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":14232,"position":2},"title":":nth-of-type","date":"September 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The :nth-of-type selector allows you select one or more elements based on their source order, according to a formula. It is defined in the CSS Selectors Level 3 spec as a \u201cstructural pseudo-class\u201d, meaning it is used to style content based on its relationship with parent and sibling elements. Suppose\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 11 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14244,"url":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/selectors\/o\/only-of-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":14232,"position":3},"title":":only-of-type","date":"September 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The :only-of-type pseudo-class selector in CSS represents any element that has no siblings of the given type. p:only-of-type { color: red; } If no tag precedes the selector, it will match any tag (e.g. :only-of-type). If another selector precedes it, it will matched based on the type of tag that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \":only-of-type\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":367122,"url":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/almanac\/properties\/g\/grid-auto-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":14232,"position":4},"title":"grid-auto-flow","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The grid-auto-flow CSS property is part of the CSS Grid Layout specification that allows us to control the flow of grid items that are automatically placed when they are not explicitly positioned with any grid-placement properties. .grid-container { display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(8, 50px); grid-auto-flow: dense; } That example creates a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/css-tricks-logo-gradient-outline.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5449,"url":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/snippets\/css\/remove-margins-first-element\/","url_meta":{"origin":14232,"position":5},"title":"Remove Margins for First\/Last Elements","date":"February 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It can sometimes be desirable to remove the top or left margin from the first element in a container. Likewise, the right or bottom margin from the last element in a container. You can do this by manually applying classes to the HTML: .first { margin-top: 0 !important; margin-left: 0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20965,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14232\/revisions\/20965"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}