The Powerful CSS not Selector

The :not() CSS selector is a powerful addition to the pseudo-class toolbelt, allowing you to select elements that are omitted by its argument.

A basic :not() CSS Selector Example

Here’s an example. I have a few classes set up - one applies base styles for all buttons, one sets the styles of a primary button, and another determines what a primary disabled button should look like.

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.button {
  border: none;
  padding: 1rem 2rem;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  cursor: pointer;
  margin-top: 1rem;
}

.button--primary {
  background: $button--primary;
  color: white;
}

.button--disabled {
  background: $button--disabled;
  cursor: auto;
}

In order to align with accessibility, it’s important that the background of the button changes when in hover state. That’s simple enough; here’s the change.

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.button--primary:hover {
  background: $button-primary-hover;
}

But, after adding the :hover selector, we run into a problem. Try hovering over the disabled button and notice that the background changes as if we were hovering over an active primary button.

How do we get around this? The :not() selector makes this an easy fix, allowing the change to only affect primary buttons that are not disabled!

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.button--primary:hover:not(.button--disabled) {
  background: $button-primary-hover;
}

Browser Compatibility for the :not Selector

Thankfully, the :not() selector is supported by most major browsers.

Check out caniuse.com to see the exceptions.

Conclusion

In this article, we briefly discussed the :not() selector and saw a real-world example. A variety of options open up when using this selector - what applications can you think of?

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