[html] Changing CSS for last <li>

I am wondering if there is some way to change a CSS attribute for the last li in a list using CSS. I have looked into using :last-child, but this seems really buggy and I can't get it to work for me. I will use JavaScript to do this if necessary, but I want to know if anyone can think up a solution in CSS.

I usually do this by creating a htc file (ex. last-child.htc):

<attach event="ondocumentready" handler="initializeBehaviours" />
<script type="text/javascript">
function initializeBehaviours() {
  this.lastChild.className += ' last-child';
}
</script>

And call it from my IE conditional css file with:

ul { behavior: url("/javascripts/htc/last-child.htc"); }

Whereas in my main css file I got:

ul li:last-child,
ul li.last-child {
  /* some code */
}

Another solution (albeit slower) that uses your existent css markup without defining any .last-child class would be Dean Edwards ie7.js library.

2015 Answer: CSS last-of-type allows you to style the last item.

ul li:last-of-type { color: red; }

You could use jQuery and do it as such way

$("li:last-child").addClass("someClass");

If you know there are three li's in the list you're looking at, for example, you could do this:

li + li + li { /* Selects third to last li */
}

In IE6 you can use expressions:

li {
    color: expression(this.previousSibling ? 'red' : 'green'); /* 'green' if last child */
}

I would recommend using a specialized class or Javascript (not IE6 expressions), though, until the :last-child selector gets better support.

I've done this with pure CSS (probably because I come from the future - 3 years later than everyone else :P )

Supposing we have a list:

<ul id="nav">
  <li><span>Category 1</span></li>
  <li><span>Category 2</span></li>
  <li><span>Category 3</span></li>
</ul>

Then we can easily make the text of the last item red with:

ul#nav li:last-child span {
   color: Red;
}

:last-child is CSS3 and has no IE support while :first-child is CSS2, I believe the following is the safe way to implement it using jquery

$('li').last().addClass('someClass');

$('li').last().addClass('someClass');

if you have multiple

I usually combine CSS and JavaScript approaches, so that it works without JavaScript in all browsers but IE6/7, and in IE6/7 with JavaScript on (but not off), since they does not support the :last-child pseudo-class.

$("li:last-child").addClass("last-child");

li:last-child,li.last-child{ /* ... */ }

One alternative for IE7+ and other browsers may be to use :first-child instead, and invert your styles.

For example, if you're setting the margin on each li:

ul li {
  margin-bottom: 1em;
}
ul li:last-child {
  margin-bottom: 0;
}

You could replace it with this:

ul li {
  margin-top: 1em;
}
ul li:first-child {
  margin-top: 0;
}

This will work well for some other cases like borders.

According to sitepoint, :first-child buggy, but only to the extent that it will select some root elements (the doctype or html), and may not change styles if other elements are inserted.