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Vanessa Elliott
1,742 Pointsnth-child definition confusion
I thought I understood what the nth-child was while watching the video, but reading the definition given in the notes makes me feel really confused about it now.
It says ":nth-child(An+B) - The nth-child pseudo-class matches A(n)+B-1 siblings in the document tree. The A value that precedes n is required. By itself, this will match every "nth" element in a group. Both A and B must be integers."
But why does it say B-1? I understand what A(n) means, and what A(n)+B would mean, but why the -1? In the code suggestion it says you can put 3n+1 for when you have more than 5 items, but wouldn't that just mean it's now 3n+1-1? So it's just 3n?
Sorry if this seems nitpicky, it just really confuses me why there'd be a random -1, therefore making the +1 pointless. I'm probably just not understanding it.
1 Answer
Steven Parker
231,269 PointsI like to think of it this way: The number before the "n" is the repeat interval. So "3n" would mean "every 3rd item". The (optional) number after the "+" is the starting item. So "3n+1" means "every 3rd item starting with item 1".
So some examples of the sequence of items affected:
- 3n -- 3, 6, 9, 12, etc.
- 3n+1 -- 1, 4, 7, 10, etc.
- 2n+3 -- 3, 5, 7, 9, etc.
Does that help?
Vanessa Elliott
1,742 PointsVanessa Elliott
1,742 PointsOhhhhh yes that makes sense now. Thank you very much!