Apply style to only first level of td tags

css css-selectors
RichC picture RichC · Mar 5, 2009 · Viewed 217.9k times · Source

Is there a way to apply a Class' style to only ONE level of td tags?

<style>.MyClass td {border: solid 1px red;}</style>

<table class="MyClass">
  <tr>
    <td>
      THIS SHOULD HAVE RED BORDERS
    </td>
    <td>
      THIS SHOULD HAVE RED BORDERS
      <table><tr><td>THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY</td></tr></table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Answer

bobince picture bobince · Mar 5, 2009

Is there a way to apply a Class' style to only ONE level of td tags?

Yes*:

.MyClass>tbody>tr>td { border: solid 1px red; }

But! The ‘>’ direct-child selector does not work in IE6. If you need to support that browser (which you probably do, alas), all you can do is select the inner element separately and un-set the style:

.MyClass td { border: solid 1px red; }
.MyClass td td { border: none; }

*Note that the first example references a tbody element not found in your HTML. It should have been in your HTML, but browsers are generally ok with leaving it out... they just add it in behind the scenes.

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