[css] Nesting CSS classes

Can I do something like the following?

.class1{some stuff}

.class2{class1;some more stuff}

This question is related to css css-selectors

The answer is


I do not believe this is possible. You could add class1 to all elements which also have class2. If this is not practical to do manually, you could do it automatically with JavaScript (fairly easy to do with jQuery).


Try this...

Give the element an ID, and also a class Name. Then you can nest the #IDName.className in your CSS.

Here's a better explanation https://css-tricks.com/multiple-class-id-selectors/


Not with pure CSS. The closest equivalent is this:

.class1, .class2 {
    some stuff
}

.class2 {
    some more stuff
}

Update 1: There is a CSS3 spec for CSS level 3 nesting. It's currently a draft. https://tabatkins.github.io/specs/css-nesting/

Update 2 (2019): We now have a CSSWG draft https://drafts.csswg.org/css-nesting-1/

If approved, the syntax would look like this:

table.colortable {
  & td {
    text-align:center;
    &.c { text-transform:uppercase }
    &:first-child, &:first-child + td { border:1px solid black }
  }
  & th {
    text-align:center;
    background:black;
    color:white;
  }
}

.foo {
  color: red;
  @nest & > .bar {
    color: blue;
  }
}

.foo {
  color: red;
  @nest .parent & {
    color: blue;
  }
}

Status: The original 2015 spec proposal was not approved by the Working Group.


Not directly. But you can use extensions such as LESS to help you achieve the same.


No.

You can use grouping selectors and/or multiple classes on a single element, or you can use a template language and process it with software to write your CSS.

See also my article on CSS inheritance.