Exploring the power of positive lookahead in CSS styling

When working with Perl regex, I understand how positive lookahead works - such as q(?=u) matching a q that is followed by a u without including the u in the match. Now, I am interested in finding something similar in CSS: specifically, I am looking to select a div element that is immediately followed by another sibling div with the class specialClass.

<div>..</div>  <!-- div to match -->
<div class="specialClass">..</div>

I have experimented with using the + selector, but found that it matches the div.specialClass itself instead of the preceding div element.

cssregex

Answer №1

The subject of a selector in CSS is always the last element, but there may be future syntax options to change this. For now, you can use JavaScript or jQuery as a workaround.

// Selects .specialClass div that follows another div
div + div.specialClass {
    color: red;
}

In the future, syntax like $div + div.specialClass may allow the first div to be the subject.

// Selects any `div` preceding any `div.specialClass`
$div + div.specialClass { // or maybe div! + div.specialClass
    color: red;
}

To work around this limitation currently, you can use jQuery:

$("div + div.specialClass").prev();

This will reference all div elements preceding any div.specialClass.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/jonathansampson/HLfCr/
Source: http://dev.w3.org/csswg/selectors4/#subject

Answer №2

Don't forget to keep a close watch on the upcoming CSS4 selector known as :has(), which is gaining widespread browser support (except for poor Firefox).

div:has(+div.specialClass)

Huge thanks to @porg for sharing the update!

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