not:first-child selector

923
votes

I have a div tag containing several ul tags.

I'm able to set CSS properties for the first ul tag only:

div ul:first-child {
    background-color: #900;
}

However, my following attempts to set CSS properties for each other ul tag except the first one don't work:

div ul:not:first-child {
    background-color: #900;
}

div ul:not(:first-child) {
    background-color: #900;
}

div ul:first-child:after {
    background-color: #900;
}

How can I write in CSS: "each element, except the first"?

11
csscss-selectors

11 Answers

1638
votes

One of the versions you posted actually works for all modern browsers (where CSS selectors level 3 are supported):

div ul:not(:first-child) {
    background-color: #900;
}

If you need to support legacy browsers, or if you are hindered by the :not selector's limitation (it only accepts a simple selector as an argument) then you can use another technique:

Define a rule that has greater scope than what you intend and then "revoke" it conditionally, limiting its scope to what you do intend:

div ul {
    background-color: #900;  /* applies to every ul */
}

div ul:first-child {
    background-color: transparent; /* limits the scope of the previous rule */
}

When limiting the scope use the default value for each CSS attribute that you are setting.

166
votes

This CSS2 solution ("any ul after another ul") works, too, and is supported by more browsers.

div ul + ul {
  background-color: #900;
}

Unlike :not and :nth-sibling, the adjacent sibling selector is supported by IE7+.

If you have JavaScript changes these properties after the page loads, you should look at some known bugs in the IE7 and IE8 implementations of this. See this link.

For any static web page, this should work perfectly.

85
votes

Since :not is not accepted by IE6-8, I would suggest you this:

div ul:nth-child(n+2) {
    background-color: #900;
}

So you pick every ul in its parent element except the first one.

Refer to Chris Coyer's "Useful :nth-child Recipes" article for more nth-child examples.

22
votes

not(:first-child) does not seem to work anymore. At least with the more recent versions of Chrome and Firefox.

Instead, try this: 

ul:not(:first-of-type) {}
19
votes
div li~li {
    color: red;
}

Supports IE7

12
votes

You can use any selector with not

p:not(:first-child){}
p:not(:first-of-type){}
p:not(:checked){}
p:not(:last-child){}
p:not(:last-of-type){}
p:not(:first-of-type){}
p:not(:nth-last-of-type(2)){}
p:not(nth-last-child(2)){}
p:not(:nth-child(2)){}
7
votes

You can use your selector with :not like bellow you can use any selector inside the :not()

any_CSS_selector:not(any_other_CSS_selector){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}

you can use :not without parent selector as well.

   :not(:nth-child(2)){
        /*YOUR STYLE*/
   }

More examples

any_CSS_selector:not(:first-child){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:first-of-type){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:checked){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:last-child){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:last-of-type){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:first-of-type){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:nth-last-of-type(2)){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:nth-last-child(2)){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
any_CSS_selector:not(:nth-child(2)){
    /*YOUR STYLE*/
}
4
votes

I didn't have luck with some of the above,

This was the only one that actually worked for me

ul:not(:first-of-type) {}

This worked for me when I was trying to have the first button displayed on the page not be effected by a margin-left option.

this was the option I tried first but it didn't work

ul:not(:first-child)

2
votes

You can use "first-child" pseudo-class inside the "not()" pseudo-class.

div ul:not(:first-child){
    background-color: #900;
}
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Pseudo Classes</title>
</head>
<body>
  <div>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Products</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Services</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Downloads</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Facebook</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Instagram</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

Alternative ways,

  1. With "nth-child()", It will select nth number of child.

div ul:not(:nth-child(1)){
    background-color: #900;
}
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Pseudo Classes</title>
</head>
<body>
  <div>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Products</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Services</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Downloads</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Facebook</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Instagram</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

  1. With "nth-of-type()", It will select nth number of element of its parent. 

    div ul:not(:nth-of-type(1)){
    background-color: #900;
}
    <html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Pseudo Classes</title>
</head>
<body>
  <div>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Products</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Services</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Downloads</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Facebook</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Instagram</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

  2. With "nth-last-child()", It will select nth number of child counting from the last child. If you have 4 "ul" tags, you can write like this.

div ul:not(:nth-last-child(4)){
    background-color: #900;
}
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Pseudo Classes</title>
</head>
<body>
  <div>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Products</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Services</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Downloads</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Facebook</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Instagram</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</body>
</html>
  1. With "nth-last-of-type()", It will select nth number of element of its parent counting from the last child. If you have 4 "ul" tags, you can write like this.

div ul:not(:nth-last-of-type(4)){
    background-color: #900;
}
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Pseudo Classes</title>
</head>
<body>
  <div>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Products</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Services</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Downloads</a></li>
    </ul>
    <ul>
       <li><a href="#">Facebook</a></li>
       <li><a href="#">Instagram</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

These are some of the best ways to handle these kind of situations.

1
votes

As I used ul:not(:first-child) is a perfect solution.

div ul:not(:first-child) {
    background-color: #900;
}

Why is this a perfect because by using ul:not(:first-child), we can apply CSS on inner elements. Like li, img, span, a tags etc.

But when used others solutions:

div ul + ul {
  background-color: #900;
}

and

div li~li {
    color: red;
}

and 

ul:not(:first-of-type) {}

and

div ul:nth-child(n+2) {
    background-color: #900;
}

These restrict only ul level CSS. Suppose we cannot apply CSS on li as `div ul + ul li'.

For inner level elements the first Solution works perfectly.

div ul:not(:first-child) li{
        background-color: #900;
    }

and so on ...

0
votes
li + li {
    background-color: red;
}