Column combinator

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The column combinator (||) is placed between two CSS selectors. It matches only those elements matched by the second selector that belong to the column elements matched by the first.

css
/* Table cells that belong to the "selected" column */
col.selected||td {
  background: gray;
}

Syntax

css
/* The white space around the || combinator is optional but recommended. */
column-selector || cell-selector {
  /* style properties */
}

Examples

HTML

html
<table border="1">
  <colgroup>
    <col span="2" />
    <col class="selected" />
  </colgroup>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>A</td>
      <td>B</td>
      <td>C</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">D</td>
      <td>E</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>F</td>
      <td colspan="2">G</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

css
col.selected||td {
  background: gray;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
Selectors Level 4
# selectordef-column

Browser compatibility

Currently, no browsers have implemented this feature.

See also