:nth-last-child() Selector

jQuery

:nth-last-child() Selector


nth-last-child selector

Description: Selects all elements that are the nth-child of their parent, counting from the last element to the first.

  • version added: 1.9jQuery( ":nth-last-child(index/even/odd/equation)" )

    index: The index of each child to match, starting with the last one (1), the string even or odd, or an equation ( eg. :nth-last-child(even), :nth-last-child(4n) )

Because jQuery's implementation of :nth- selectors is strictly derived from the CSS specification, the value of n is "1-indexed", meaning that the counting starts at 1. For other selector expressions such as :eq() or :even jQuery follows JavaScript's "0-indexed" counting. Given a single <ul> containing three <li>s, $('li:nth-last-child(1)') selects the third, last, <li>.

Further discussion of this usage can be found in the W3C CSS specification.

Examples:

Example: Find the second to last li in each matched ul and note it.

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
div { float:left; }
span { color:blue; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<ul>
<li>John</li>
<li>Karl</li>
<li>Adam</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Dan</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Dave</li>
<li>Rick</li>
<li>Timmy</li>
<li>Gibson</li>
</ul>
</div>
<script> $("ul li:nth-last-child(2)").append("<span> - 2nd to last!</span>"); </script>
</body>
</html>

Example: This is a playground to see how the selector works with different strings.

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
button { display:block; font-size:12px; width:100px; }
div { float:left; margin:10px; font-size:10px;
border:1px solid black; }
span { color:blue; font-size:18px; }
#inner { color:red; }
td { width:50px; text-align:center; }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<button>:nth-last-child(even)</button>
<button>:nth-last-child(odd)</button>
<button>:nth-last-child(3n)</button>
<button>:nth-last-child(2)</button>
</div>
<div>
<button>:nth-last-child(3n+1)</button>
<button>:nth-last-child(3n+2)</button>
</div>
<div>
<table>
<tr><td>John</td></tr>
<tr><td>Karl</td></tr>
<tr><td>Brandon</td></tr>
<tr><td>Benjamin</td></tr>
</table>
</div>
<div>
<table>
<tr><td>Sam</td></tr>
</table>
</div>
<div>
<table>
<tr><td>Glen</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tane</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ralph</td></tr>
<tr><td>David</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mike</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dan</td></tr>
</table>
</div>
<span>tr<span id="inner"></span></span>
<script>
$("button").click(function () {
var str = $(this).text();
$("tr").css("background", "white");
$("tr" + str).css("background", "#ff0000");
$("#inner").text(str);
});
</script>
</body>
</html>