How can I target a specific column or row in a CSS grid layout?

Question

Is it possible to select a specific grid column or row with CSS?

For example, say I have a 3 row by 2 column CSS grid layout: grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;. How would I select all elements from the 2nd column? For example: grid:nth-child(column:2) (just my idea, not valid code).

I have tried nth-child selectors on the div elements, but this does not allow me to specify row or column when the items are automatically placed by the CSS grid layout engine.

body {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
  grid-gap: 10px;
}

.item {
  background: #999;
}

<div class="item">
  <p>Customer Name</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>

<div class="item">
  <p>Right Justify</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>

<div class="item">
  <p>Customer Name</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>

<div class="item">
  <p>Customer Name</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>
<div class="item">
  <p>Customer Name</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>
<div class="item">
  <p>Customer Name</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>
<div class="item">
  <p>Customer Name</p>
  <p>Element 1 | Element 2</p>
</div>

Answer 1

To style an arbitrary row, you could use a wrapper element with its display set to contents. See the code snippet below:

.grid-container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(5, 1fr);
  grid-gap: 2px;
}

.grid-item {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 5px;
}

.grid-row-wrapper {
  display: contents;
}

.grid-row-wrapper > .grid-item {
  background: skyblue;
}

<div class="grid-container">
  <div class="grid-item">1</div>
  <div class="grid-item">2</div>
  <div class="grid-item">3</div>
  <div class="grid-item">4</div>
  <div class="grid-item">5</div>
  <div class="grid-row-wrapper">
    <div class="grid-item">6</div>
    <div class="grid-item">7</div>
    <div class="grid-item">8</div>
    <div class="grid-item">9</div>
    <div class="grid-item">10</div>
  </div>
  <div class="grid-item">11</div>
  <div class="grid-item">12</div>
  <div class="grid-item">13</div>
  <div class="grid-item">14</div>
  <div class="grid-item">15</div>
  <div class="grid-item">16</div>
  <div class="grid-item">17</div>
  <div class="grid-item">18</div>
  <div class="grid-item">19</div>
  <div class="grid-item">20</div>
</div>

As with all implementations, you should check to ensure it works in your target environment(s). You can check the compatibility table on MDN or Can I use for support for display: contents:

• display (MDN)
• Can I use display: contents

Answer 2

I'll add another answer, it's based on dynamically updating css rules. Unfortunately, we have to resort to this, since there is no way to set nth-child via css variables.

const data =[{"Name":"John","Age":25,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Emily","Age":33,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"Michael","Age":42,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Sarah","Age":29,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"William","Age":37,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Samantha","Age":26,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"Benjamin","Age":48,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Elizabeth","Age":31,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"David","Age":45,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Olivia","Age":28,"Gender":"Female"}]


const colors = ['255,0,0', '0,255,0', '0,0,255']
const COLUMNS = 3
let rows = 2
const wp = document.querySelector('.wrapper')
let lastSelectedColumn = null

document.querySelector('button').onclick = function(){
  if (rows > data.length -1) return
  Object.values(data[rows++])
    .map(e => Object.assign(document.createElement('div'),{textContent: e}))
    .forEach(e => wp.appendChild(e)) 
  selectColumn(lastSelectedColumn)
}

wp.onclick = function({target}){
  if (target.className !== "") return
  const index = Array.from(wp.children).indexOf(target)
  selectColumn(lastSelectedColumn = index % COLUMNS)// console.log(lastSelectedColumn)
}

function getRules(column, columns, rows, color){
  const index = (column + 1) % columns 
  const i = index  ? `+ ${index}` : ''
  return [
    `.wrapper div:nth-child(${columns}n${i}){
      border-width: 0px 3px 0 3px; 
      border-color: rgb(${color}); 
      border-style: solid;
      background: rgba(${color},.1);
    }`, /* top cell */
    `.wrapper div:nth-child(${column + 1}) {
      border-width: 3px 3px 0 3px; 
      /* font-weight: bold; */
    }`, /* bottom cell */
    `.wrapper div:nth-child(${(rows-1) * columns  + column + 1}) {
      border-width: 0 3px 3px 3px; 
    }`
  ]
}

function cleanupRules(stylesheet){
  let newRuleIndex = stylesheet.sheet.cssRules.length
  for (; newRuleIndex > 2; newRuleIndex--)
     stylesheet.sheet.deleteRule(newRuleIndex - 1)
  return newRuleIndex 
}

function selectColumn(column){
  const stylesheet = document
    .querySelector('style[title="grid-wrapper"]')
  if (!stylesheet || column === null) return
  const rules = getRules(column, COLUMNS,
    wp.children.length / COLUMNS, colors[column])
  let newRuleIndex = cleanupRules(stylesheet)
  for (const rule of rules){
    stylesheet.sheet.insertRule(rule, newRuleIndex++)
  } // console.log(stylesheet.sheet.cssRules)
}

<style title="grid-wrapper">
  .wrapper {
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    width: fit-content;
    background: #e5e5e5;
    color: black;
    margin: 10px;
  }
  .wrapper div {
    padding: 5px;
    box-sizing:content-box;
    box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px  black;
  }
</style>  
<p>Please, select a column, and click on `Add`</p>
<div class="wrapper">
  <div>Name</div>
  <div>Age</div>
  <div>Gender</div>
  <div>John</div>
  <div>25</div>
  <div>Male</div>
  <div>Emily</div>
  <div>33</div>
  <div>Female</div>
</div>
<button>Add</button>

UPDATE

Another way is rewrite only selectors in exists CSS rules (without adding or removing them):

const wp = document.querySelector('.wrapper')
const config = {
  data :[{"Name":"John","Age":25,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Emily","Age":33,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"Michael","Age":42,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Sarah","Age":29,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"William","Age":37,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Samantha","Age":26,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"Benjamin","Age":48,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Elizabeth","Age":31,"Gender":"Female"},{"Name":"David","Age":45,"Gender":"Male"},{"Name":"Olivia","Age":28,"Gender":"Female"}],
  colors : ['255,0,0', '0,255,0', '0,0,255'],
  cols : 3,
  rows : 3,
  lastSelectedColumn: null
}

function getSelectorTexts(column, columns, rows, color){
  const index = (column + 1) % columns 
  const i = index  ? `+ ${index}` : ''
  return [
    `.wrapper div:nth-child(${columns}n${i})`, 
    `.wrapper div:nth-child(${column + 1})`, 
    `.wrapper div:nth-child(${(rows-1) * columns  + column + 1})`
  ]
}

function selectColumn(column){
  const stylesheet = document
    .querySelector('style[title="grid-wrapper"]')
  if (!stylesheet || column === null) return
  const rules = getSelectorTexts(column, config.cols,
     wp.children.length / config.cols, config.colors[column])
  let i = 2  
  for (const rule of rules){
    stylesheet.sheet.rules[i++].selectorText = rule
  }
}

document.querySelector('button').onclick = function(){
  if (config.rows > config.data.length -1) return
  Object.values(config.data[config.rows++])
    .map(e => Object.assign(document.createElement('div'),{textContent: e}))
    .forEach(e => wp.appendChild(e)) 
  selectColumn(config.lastSelectedColumn)
}

wp.onclick = function({target}){
  if (target.className !== "") return
  const index = Array.from(wp.children).indexOf(target)
  selectColumn(config.lastSelectedColumn = index % config.cols)
}

<style title="grid-wrapper">
  .wrapper {
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    width: fit-content;
    background: #e5e5e5;
    color: black;
    margin: 10px;
  }
  .wrapper div {
    padding: 5px;
    border-width: 3px;
    border-color: transparent; 
    box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px  black;
  }

  .rule1 {
    border-width: 0px 3px 0 3px; 
    border-color: rgb(0, 0, 255);
    border-style: solid;
    background: rgba(0, 0, 255, .1);
  }

  .rule2 {
    border-width: 3px 3px 0 3px;
    border-color: rgb(0, 0, 255);
  }

  .rule2 {
    border-width: 0 3px 3px 3px; 
    border-color: rgb(0, 0, 255);
  }
</style>   
<p>Please, select a column, and click on `Add`</p>
<div class="wrapper">
  <div>Name</div>
  <div>Age</div>
  <div>Gender</div>
  <div>John</div>
  <div>25</div>
  <div>Male</div>
  <div>Emily</div>
  <div>33</div>
  <div>Female</div>
  <div>Michael</div>
  <div>42</div>
  <div>Male</div>
</div>
<button>Add</button>

Answer 3

There aren't any column or row elements that you can target, but if the grid is uniform (same number of cells in each row), you can select cells. Here are some examples.

1. Columns

Last column in a 5-column grid:

.item:nth-child(5n) { /* ... */ }

Fourth (second last) column in a 5-column grid:

.item:nth-child(5n-1) { /* ... */ }

First (5th last) column in a 5-column grid:

.item:nth-child(5n-4) { /* ... */ }

2. Rows

First row in a 5-column grid (first five cells):

.item:nth-child(-n+5) { /* ... */ }

Second row in a 5-column grid (cells from 6 to 10):

.item:nth-child(n+6):nth-child(-n+10) { /* ... */ }

Third row in a 5-column grid (cells from 11 to 15):

.item:nth-child(n+11):nth-child(-n+15) { /* ... */ }

Last row in a 5-column grid with 20 cells (cells from 16 onward):

.item:nth-child(n+16) { /* ... */ }

Answer 4

You can not because there are no such selectors.

But that is strange, because you can easily target the row/column from CSS:

#item3 {
  background-color: blue;
  grid-row: span 2 / 7;
}

Thus it is natural to expect something like:

div[style*="display:grid"]:grid-row(3) {
    background-color: blue;
}

div[style*="display:grid"]:grid-column(3) {
    background-color: green;
}

I do not know the reasons that a draft for this has not been proposed yet.

There is a CSSWG draft for column selection

There is also an issue request at the W3C repository

Answer 5

It is not possible with CSS.

CSS targets HTML elements, attributes and attribute values.

Grid columns and rows have none of these "hooks".

You'll have to target the grid items directly.

You wrote:

For example, say I have a 3 row by 2 column CSS Grid Layout: grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;. How would I select all elements from the 2nd column?

grid-container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-gap: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
  height: 50vh;
  background-color: gray;
}

grid-item {
  background-color: lightgreen;
}

grid-item:nth-child(2n) {
  border: 2px dashed red;
}

<grid-container>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
</grid-container>

Answer 6

In the near future we will be able to do it thanks to the Grid-Structural Selectors

The double-association of a cell in a 2D grid (to its row and column) cannot be represented by parentage in a hierarchical markup language. Only one of those associations can be represented hierarchically: the other must be explicitly or implicitly defined in the document language semantics. In both HTML and DocBook, two of the most common hierarchical markup languages, the markup is row-primary (that is, the row associations are represented hierarchically); the columns must be implied. To be able to represent such implied column-based relationships, the column combinator and the :nth-col() and :nth-last-col() pseudo-classes are defined. In a column-primary format, these pseudo-classes match against row associations instead.

The one you need here is :nth-col() that behave the same way as :nth-child()

The :nth-col(An+B) pseudo-class notation represents a cell element belonging to a column that has An+B-1 columns before it ^ref

Answer 7

If you ever want to style a row the same principle applies. Taking that example from above:

grid-container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-gap: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
  height: 50vh;
  background-color: gray;
}

grid-item {
  background-color: lightgreen;
}

grid-item:nth-child(4n+3),grid-item:nth-child(4n) {
  border: 2px dashed red;
}

<grid-container>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
  <grid-item></grid-item>
</grid-container>