:has()

Syntax

:has(<relative-selector-list>) {
  /* ... */
}

If the :has() pseudo-class itself is not supported in a browser, the entire selector block will fail unless :has() is in a forgiving selector list, such as in :is() and :where().

The :has() pseudo-class cannot be nested within another :has().

Pseudo-elements are also not valid selectors within :has() and pseudo-elements are not valid anchors for :has(). This is because many pseudo-elements exist conditionally based on the styling of their ancestors and allowing these to be queried by :has() can introduce cyclic querying.

Examples

Selecting a parent element

You may be looking for a "parent combinator", which allows you to go up the DOM tree and select the parent of a specific element. The :has() pseudo-class does that by using parent:has(child) (for any parent) or parent:has(> child) (for direct parent). This example shows how to style a <section> element when it contains a child with the featured class.

<section>
  <article class="featured">Featured content</article>
  <article>Regular content</article>
</section>
<section>
  <article>Regular content</article>
</section>

section:has(.featured) {
  border: 2px solid blue;
}

Result

With the sibling combinator

The :has() style declaration in the following example adjusts the spacing after <h1> headings if they are immediately followed by an <h2> heading.

HTML

<section>
  <article>
    <h1>Morning Times</h1>
    <p>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
      tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
    </p>
  </article>
  <article>
    <h1>Morning Times</h1>
    <h2>Delivering you news every morning</h2>
    <p>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
      tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
    </p>
  </article>
</section>

CSS

section {
  display: flex;
  align-items: start;
  justify-content: space-around;
}

article {
  display: inline-block;
  width: 40%;
}

h1,
h2 {
  font-size: 1.2em;
}

h2 {
  font-size: 1em;
  color: rgb(150 149 149);
}

h1,
h2 {
  margin: 0 0 1rem 0;
}

h1:has(+ h2) {
  margin: 0 0 0.25rem 0;
}

Result

This example shows two similar texts side-by-side for comparison – the left one with an H1 heading followed by a paragraph and the right one with an H1 heading followed by an H2 heading and then a paragraph. In the example on the right, :has() helps to select the H1 element that is immediately followed by an H2 element (indicated by the next-sibling combinator +) and the CSS rule reduces the spacing after such an H1 element. Without the :has() pseudo-class, you cannot use CSS selectors to select a preceding sibling of a different type or a parent element.

With the :is() pseudo-class

This example builds on the previous example to show how to select multiple elements with :has().

HTML

<section>
  <article>
    <h1>Morning Times</h1>
    <h2>Delivering you news every morning</h2>
    <p>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
      tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
    </p>
  </article>
  <article>
    <h1>Morning Times</h1>
    <h2>Delivering you news every morning</h2>
    <h3>8:00 am</h3>
    <p>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
      tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
    </p>
  </article>
</section>

CSS

section {
  display: flex;
  align-items: start;
  justify-content: space-around;
}

article {
  display: inline-block;
  width: 40%;
}

h1 {
  font-size: 1.2em;
}

h2 {
  font-size: 1em;
  color: rgb(150 149 149);
}

h3 {
  font-size: 0.9em;
  color: darkgrey;
}

h1,
h2,
h3 {
  margin: 0 0 1rem 0;
}

:is(h1, h2, h3):has(+ :is(h2, h3, h4)) {
  margin: 0 0 0.25rem 0;
}

Result

Here, the first :is() pseudo-class is used to select any of the heading elements in the list. The second :is() pseudo-class is used to pass a list of next-sibling selectors as an argument to :has(). The :has() pseudo-class helps to select any H1, H2, or H3 element that is immediately followed by (indicated by +) an H2, H3, or H4 element and the CSS rule reduces the spacing after such H1, H2, or H3 elements.

This selector could have also been written as:

:is(h1, h2, h3):has(+ h2, + h3, + h4) {
  margin: 0 0 0.25rem 0;
}

Logical operations

The :has() relational selector can be used to check if one of the multiple features is true or if all the features are true.

By using comma-separated values inside the :has() relational selector, you are checking to see if any of the parameters exist. x:has(a, b) will style x if descendant a OR b exists.

By chaining together multiple :has() relational selectors together, you are checking to see if all of the parameters exist. x:has(a):has(b) will style x if descendant a AND b exist.

body:has(video, audio) {
  /* styles to apply if the content contains audio OR video */
}
body:has(video):has(audio) {
  /* styles to apply if the content contains both audio AND video */
}

Analogy between :has() and regular expressions

Interestingly, we can relate some CSS :has() constructs with the lookahead assertion in regular expressions because they both allow you to select elements (or strings in regular expressions) based on a condition without actually selecting the condition matching the element (or string) itself.

Positive lookahead (?=pattern)

In the regular expression abc(?=xyz), the string abc is matched only if it is immediately followed by the string xyz. As it is a lookahead operation, the xyz is not included in the match.

The analogous construct in CSS would be .abc:has(+ .xyz): it selects the element .abc only if there is a next sibling .xyz. The part :has(+ .xyz) acts as a lookahead operation because the element .abc is selected and not the element .xyz.

Negative lookahead (?!pattern)

Similarly, for the negative lookahead case, in the regular expression abc(?!xyz), the string abc is matched only if it is not followed by xyz. The analogous CSS construct .abc:has(+ :not(.xyz)) doesn't select the element .abc if the next element is .xyz.

Performance considerations

Certain uses of the :has() pseudo-class can significantly impact page performance, particularly during dynamic updates (DOM mutations). Browser engines must re-evaluate :has() selectors when the DOM changes, and complex or poorly constrained selectors can lead to expensive computations.

Avoid broad anchoring

The anchor selector (the A in A:has(B)) should not be an element that has too many children, like body, :root, or *. Anchoring :has() to very general selectors can degrade performance because any DOM change within the entire subtree of a broadly selected element requires the browser to re-check the :has() condition.

/* Avoid anchoring :has() to broad elements */
body:has(.sidebar) {
  /* styles */
}
:root:has(.content) {
  /* styles */
}
*:has(.item) {
  /* styles */
}

Instead, anchor :has() to specific elements like .container or .gallery to reduce the scope and improve performance.

/* Use specific containers to limit scope */
.container:has(.sidebar-expanded) {
  /* styles */
}
.content-wrapper:has(> article[data-priority="high"]) {
  /* styles */
}
.gallery:has(> img[data-loaded="false"]) {
  /* styles */
}

Minimize subtree traversals

The inner selector (the B in A:has(B)) should use combinators like > or + to limit traversal. When the selector inside :has() is not tightly constrained, the browser might need to traverse the entire subtree of the anchor element on every DOM mutation to check if the condition still holds.

In this example, any change within .ancestor requires checking all descendants for .foo:

/* May trigger full subtree traversal */
.ancestor:has(.foo) {
  /* styles */
}

Using child or sibling combinators limits the scope of the inner selector, reducing the performance cost of DOM mutations. In this example, the browser only needs to check direct children or a specific sibling's descendants:

/* More constrained - limits traversal */
.ancestor:has(> .foo) {
  /* direct child */
}
.ancestor:has(+ .sibling .foo) {
  /* descendant of adjacent sibling */
}

Certain inner selectors can force the browser to traverse up the ancestor chain for every DOM mutation, looking for potential anchors that might need updating. This happens when the structure implies a need to check ancestors of the mutated element.

In this example, any DOM change requires checking if the changed element is any element (*) that is a direct child of .foo, and if its parent (or further ancestors) is .ancestor.

/* Might trigger ancestor traversal */
.ancestor:has(.foo > *) {
  /* styles */
}

Constraining the inner selector with specific classes or direct child combinators (e.g., .specific-child in the next snippet) reduces expensive ancestor traversals by limiting the browser's check to a well-defined element, improving performance.

/* Constrain the inner selector to avoid ancestor traversals */
.ancestor:has(.foo > .specific-child) {
  /* styles */
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• :is(), :where(), :not()
• CSS selectors and combinators
• CSS selector structure
• Selector list
• CSS selector module
• Locating DOM elements using selectors