CODEWITHSUNDEEP
csscss-selectors
The Muffin Man
The Muffin Man

Reputation: 20004

:first-child not working as expected

I'm trying to select the first h1 inside a div with a class called detail_container. It works if h1 is the first element within this div, but if it comes after this ul it won't work.

<style type="text/css">
.detail_container h1:first-child
{
color:blue;
} 
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="detail_container">
    <ul>
    <li></li>
    <li></li>
    </ul>
    <h1>First H1</h1>
    <h1>Second H1</h1>
</div>
</body>
</html>

I was under the impression that the CSS I have will select the first h1 no matter where it is in this div. How can I make it work?

Upvotes: 129

Views: 194705

Answers (5)

Fabrice
Fabrice

Reputation: 201

you can also use

.detail_container h1:nth-of-type(1)

By changing the number 1 by any other number you can select any other h1 item.

Upvotes: 10

GhostToast
GhostToast

Reputation: 467

You could wrap your h1 tags in another div and then the first one would be the first-child. That div doesn't even need styles. It's just a way to segregate those children.

<div class="h1-holder">
    <h1>Title 1</h1>
    <h1>Title 2</h1>
</div>

Upvotes: 2

BoltClock
BoltClock

Reputation: 723448

The h1:first-child selector means

Select the first child of its parent
if and only if it's an h1 element.

The :first-child of the container here is the ul, and as such cannot satisfy h1:first-child.

There is CSS3's :first-of-type for your case:

.detail_container h1:first-of-type
{
    color: blue;
}

But with browser compatibility woes and whatnot, you're better off giving the first h1 a class, then targeting that class:

.detail_container h1.first
{
    color: blue;
}

Upvotes: 287

Grekz
Grekz

Reputation: 1591

For that particular case you can use:

.detail_container > ul + h1{ 
    color: blue; 
}

But if you need that same selector on many cases, you should have a class for those, like BoltClock said.

Upvotes: 9

Rob Sobers
Rob Sobers

Reputation: 21125

:first-child selects the first h1 if and only if it is the first child of its parent element. In your example, the ul is the first child of the div.

The name of the pseudo-class is somewhat misleading, but it's explained pretty clearly here in the spec.

jQuery's :first selector gives you what you're looking for. You can do this:

$('.detail_container h1:first').css("color", "blue");

Upvotes: 24

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