How can I properly target the last tr in a table that uses tfoot, tbody, and thead?

Question

I have a table.

It currently contains a thead, tbody, and tfoot section.

I want to target the last row (tr) in the table.

If I use tr:last-of-type , it causes 3 rows to be targeted:

This is because it targets the last tr in the thead, the last tr in the tbody, and the last tr in the tfoot.

I don't want it to target 3 rows. I only want it to target the last row in the table.

I can use tfoot tr:last-of-type , which will work as long as tfoot has at least one tr element in it:

However, if the tfoot is empty, or if the table lacks a tfoot element, then nothing will be targeted.

I want to always target the absolute last row of the table, using only CSS. How can I do that?

Answer 1

Another way here.

 table { border-collapse:collapse; } tr{ border-bottom: 1px solid #000; } table :last-child >:last-child > td { background-color: red } 

 <table> <tr> <td>a </td> <td>a </td> </tr> <tr> <td>b </td> <td>b </td> </tr> <tr> <td>v </td> <td>v </td> </tr> </table> -------------- <table> <tr> <td>a </td> <td>a </td> </tr> <tr> <td>b </td> <td>b </td> </tr> <tr> <td>v </td> <td>v </td> </tr> <tfoot> <tr> <td>v </td> <td>v </td> </tr> </tfoot> </table> ------------ <table> <thead> <tr> <td>r</td> <td>r</td> </tr> </thead> <tr> <td>a </td> <td>a </td> </tr> <tr> <td>b </td> <td>b </td> </tr> <tr> <td>v </td> <td>v </td> </tr> <tfoot> <tr> <td>v </td> <td>v </td> </tr> </tfoot> </table> 

solution is easy. First you adress the table, in my snippet table . Then you have to address the very last element, and as we have three leveles ( thead or tbody or tfoot > td > 'tr') we need to address the last element 3 times

Answer 2

One simple way to 'always target the last row, not matter where it is' is simply

 table > *:last-child > tr:last-of-type { background-color: #0f0; } 

 <table> <thead> <tr> <th>A</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>a</td> </tr> <tr> <td>b</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>A</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>a</td> </tr> <tr> <td>b</td> </tr> </tbody> <tfoot> <tr> <td>c</td> </tr> </tfoot> </table> 

This will do what you described, though there is a catch. The order of the <thead> , <tbody> and <tfoot> elements is not enforced, so you may actually put a <tfoot> before the <tbody> with the same table as output, in which case literally the last <tr> will get selected, which is not visually the last <tr> .

That would require some additional trickery:

/* the optimistic true last <tr> */
table > :last-child > tr:last-of-type,
/* any last <tr> within a <tfoot> */
table tfoot > tr:last-of-type {
    background-color: #0f0;
}

/* reset any style in the true last <tr> if its parent is
   preceded by a `<tfoot>` */
table > tfoot ~ :last-child > tr:last-of-type {
    background-color: initial;
}

working fiddle

EDIT: I forgot to take empty <tfoot> element into consideration, this demands the use of the :not and :empty pseudo classes (which are not supported by older browsers), which would look like:

/* the optimistic true last <tr> */
table > :last-child > tr:last-of-type,
/* any last <tr> within a <tfoot> */
table tfoot > tr:last-of-type {
    background-color: #0f0;
}

/* reset any style in the true last <tr> if its parent is
   preceded by a `<tfoot>` */
table > tfoot:not(:empty) ~ :last-child > tr:last-of-type {
    background-color: initial;
}

updated fiddle

Answer 3

Completely editing my answer. Sorry about that. The issue here is that you just can't tell if the last row has any content with CSS.

So purely using CSS is not going to work because the row still exists even if it's empty. So it'll be styling the last row, there will just be nothing in it. I'd look to Javascript or if you're generating this sever side add a class to the last row so you can custom style it.

Answer 4

Not sure what you mean by target the last row in the table.

If you want to target the last tfoot you would use:

 table tfoot tr:last-of-type

If you want to target the last row in the tbody you would use:

table tbody tr:last-of-type

If you want to target the last row in the thead you would use:

table thead tr:last-of-type

If you want to target the last row in the tfoot unless it's empty as which point you want to target the last row in the tbody then you will need to use JavaScript.

Here is a fiddle link for you to see the code. Fiddle Link