How to target a specific column or row in CSS Grid Layout?

Question

Is it possible to select a specific grid column or row with CSS?

For example, say I have a 3 row by 2 column CSS Grid Layout: grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;. How would I select all elements from the 2nd column? For example: grid:nth-child(column:2) (just my idea, not valid code).

I have tried nth-child selectors on the div elements, but this does not allow me to specify row or column when the items are automatically placed by the Grid Layout engine.

body {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
  grid-gap: 10px;
}

.item {
  background: #999;
}


  Customer Name
  Element 1 | Element 2



  Right Justify
  Element 1 | Element 2



  Customer Name
  Element 1 | Element 2



  Customer Name
  Element 1 | Element 2


  Customer Name
  Element 1 | Element 2


  Customer Name
  Element 1 | Element 2


  Customer Name
  Element 1 | Element 2

user_2047843 · Answer

To style an arbitrary row, you could use a wrapper element with its display set to contents. See the code snippet below:

.grid-container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(5, 1fr);
  grid-gap: 2px;
}

.grid-item {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 5px;
}

.grid-row-wrapper {
  display: contents;
}

.grid-row-wrapper > .grid-item {
  background: skyblue;
}

EDIT: As with all implementations, you should check to ensure it works in your target environment(s). You can check the compatibility table on MDN or caniuse.com for support for display: contents:

user_2569676 · Answer

There are no column or row elements that you can target but if the grid is uniform (same number of cells in each row) you can select cells. Here are some examples.

1. Columns

Last column in a 5-column grid:

.item:nth-child(5n) { /* ... */ }

Fourth (2nd last) column in a 5-column grid:

.item:nth-child(5n-1) { /* ... */ }

First (5th last) column in a 5-column grid:

.item:nth-child(5n-4) { /* ... */ }

2. Rows

First row in a 5-column grid (first five cells):

.item:nth-child(-n+5) { /* ... */ }

Second row in a 5-column grid (cells from 6 to 10):

.item:nth-child(n+6):nth-child(-n+10) { /* ... */ }

Third row in a 5-column grid (cells from 11 to 15):

.item:nth-child(n+11):nth-child(-n+15) { /* ... */ }

Last row in a 5-column grid with 20 cells (cells from 16 onward):

.item:nth-child(n+16) { /* ... */ }

user_3597276 · Answer

Not possible with CSS.

CSS targets HTML elements, attributes and attribute values.

Grid columns and rows have none of these "hooks".

You'll have to target the grid items directly.

You wrote:

For example, say I have a 3 row by 2 column CSS Grid Layout: grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;. How would I select all elements from the 2nd column?

grid-container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-gap: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
  height: 50vh;
  background-color: gray;
}

grid-item {
  background-color: lightgreen;
}

grid-item:nth-child(2n) {
  border: 2px dashed red;
}

user_4632019 · Answer

You can not. You have no such selectors.

But that is strange, because you can easily target row/colum from CSS

#item3 {
  background-color: blue;
  grid-row: span 2 / 7;
}

This is natural to expect something:

div[style*="display:grid"]:grid-row(3) {
    background-color: blue;
}

div[style*="display:grid"]:grid-column(3) {
    background-color: green;
}

Do not the reasons that draft for this is not proposed yet

UPD
Seems there are for columns: https://drafts.csswg.org/selectors-4/#the-nth-col-pseudo

UPD
Issue at W3C repo

user_8620333 · Answer

In the near future we will be able to do it thanks to the Grid-Structural Selectors

The double-association of a cell in a 2D grid (to its row and column) cannot be represented by parentage in a hierarchical markup language. Only one of those associations can be represented hierarchically: the other must be explicitly or implicitly defined in the document language semantics. In both HTML and DocBook, two of the most common hierarchical markup languages, the markup is row-primary (that is, the row associations are represented hierarchically); the columns must be implied. To be able to represent such implied column-based relationships, the column combinator and the :nth-col() and :nth-last-col() pseudo-classes are defined. In a column-primary format, these pseudo-classes match against row associations instead.

The one you need here is :nth-col() that behave the same way as :nth-child()

The :nth-col(An+B) pseudo-class notation represents a cell element belonging to a column that has An+B-1 columns before it ^ref

How to target a specific column or row in CSS Grid Layout?

6 Answers

1. Columns

2. Rows