What is the reason for the presence of the ^ symbol in this drop-down menu?

Just came across a great script, check it out here!

Noticed the drop down has a ^ on top. The CSS I found for this is as follows:

#colorNav li ul li:first-child:before{ 
    content:none;
    position:absolute;
    width:1px;
    height:1px;
    border:5px solid transparent;
    border-bottom-color:#313131;
    left:50%;
    top:-10px;
    margin-left:-5px;
}

Struggling to understand how this works; is it related to the border?

Answer №1

Utilizing CSS with the given HTML structure (simplified for clarity):

<nav id="colorNav">
    <ul>
        <li class="green">
            <a href="#" class="icon-home"></a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Back to the tutorial</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Get help</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="red">
            <a href="#" class="icon-cogs"></a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Payment</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Notifications</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>
</nav>

The CSS selector targets the :before pseudo-element on the inner-most li elements that are also the first elements within their parent:

#colorNav li ul li:first-child:before

An omitted comment in your provided code, present in the original tutorial, reads:

/* the pointer tip */

These rules pertain to creating a small triangle at the top of dropdown menus, pointing upwards towards their corresponding block (illustrated below, highlighted by a red circle):

Subsequent styles outline the creation of this triangular shape:

content: none;                  /* Pseudo-element devoid of content */
position: absolute;             /* Positioned absolutely */
width: 1px;                     /* 1-pixel width */
height: 1px;                    /* 1-pixel height */
border: 5px solid transparent;  /* Initial border style applied */
border-bottom-color: #313131;   /* Custom bottom border color */
left: 50%;                      /* Centered horizontally */
top: -10px;                     /* 10px above the element */
margin-left: -5px;              /* Centered horizontally */

The end result is a CSS-created triangle using only borders.

Answer №2

By using the CSS selector #colorNav li ul li:first-child and applying the pseudo-element content:'';, a faux space is generated in the front of the element, which can be styled further with additional CSS rules.

Answer №3

#colorNav li ul li:first-child:before { ... }

The :first-child pseudo-class targets the specified selector only if it is the first child of its parent element.

content:'';

The content property is utilized with the :before and :after pseudo-elements to add generated content.

I trust that this information proves helpful to you.

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