Blog css tabs

How to make tabs using only CSS

I know there are more than a few articles about this topic. And there are 2 basic approaches: using :target pseudo selector and using list with :checked pseudo selector.

I prefer the second approach, but without list or nested div structure.

CSS tabs could be accessible, read about it here.

HTML structure

Let's start with HTML. This is the full structure:

Let's break it down by elements:

  • wrapper - this element is used to distinguish tabs from the rest of the content;
  • input type="radio" - this element will be hidden, but will be used as a controlling element;
  • label - this element will be used as a clickable tab;
  • content - this element is used as a wrapper for tab's content.

This structure may look a bit dirty, but soon you'll see the benefit of it. The basic principle is to group different types of elements.

Next we'll add the following classes on every element:

  • tabs on wrapper div,
  • tabs__radio on input type="radio" elements,
  • tabs__label on label elements and
  • tabs__content on content div elements.

BEM naming convention is used for this purpose.

To make sure every input type="radio" element is a part of the same block, we'll add name attribute with same value on it like this:

<input class="tabs__radio" name="myTabs" />

Labels are generally used to define an input element. If for attribute is provided with matching id of an input, they will be bound together. If you click on a label that is related to input type="radio", checked state of an element will be toggled. This will be used as a trigger for changing tabs.

With that clarified, we'll add unique id attributes on every input type="radio" and matching for attributes to every label like this:

<input class="tabs__radio" id="myTab1" name="myTabs" />
<label class="tabs__label for="myTab1">

Finally, we'll add value attribute for every input type="radio" element and checked attribute on an element which should be active.

CSS code

To create styling for tabs, SCSS and cita-flex will be used. This is the final code:

First we will import cita-flex mixins in our file. It is a small library which could help you create layouts using flexbox built by me. cita-flex is available through bower and you could install it using command bower install cita-flex.

After that we should define default variables which will help us write more consistent code. There are 6 variables:

  • $size - default size for padding,
  • $background - default background color for tabs,
  • $background--active - default background color for active tab,
  • $color - text color for tabs,
  • $color--disabled - text color for disabled tabs and
  • $breakpoint - width which will define our tabs layout.

I really like BEM naming convention and I use it for defining CSS variables, too.

Wrapper element should be displayed as a wrapped flex.

input type="radio" elements should be hidden. Here we hide them using position: absolute technique and push the elements outside of the viewport.

Tabs, or label elements in this case, are flex items. They are aligned in a row and have fluid width controlled by flex-basis.

Tab's content is an element which takes 100% of the wrapper's width. This is achieved by setting flex-basis to 100%. By default, content is hidden unless matching input type="radio" is checked.

Now for the fun part, using CSS to control the tabs. We will take advantage of 3 powerful CSS selectors:

  • nth-of-type - selects the nth child of the same elements,
  • :checked - check if input is checked and
  • ~ - selects siblings selector.

If the first child of a input type="radio" is checked, the first tab should be active and the content of the first tab should be displayed.

Easy, we'll use .input__radio:nth-of-type(1) to select the first input type="radio". Then we'll check if input is checked: .input__radio:nth-of-type(1):checked and find the first tab using siblings selector: .input__radio:nth-of-type(1):checked ~ .tabs__label:nth-of-type(1). Finally, we'll find the content of the first tab: .input__radio:nth-of-type(1):checked ~ .tabs__content:nth-of-type(1).

Now that we know how to do this for first tab, we could use @for loop and repeat this for every tab. And that's it!

Bonus: disabled state

I've had situations where tabs should be disabled. It is legit situation and for this purpose I've added disabled state of tab.

We'll use :disabled pseudo selector and hide-if-disabled class for elements that should be hidden.

The principle is the the same: we'll find disabled input element and matching tab and content: .tab__radio:nth-of-type(1):disabled ~ .hide-if-disabled:nth-of-type(1).

Now we could repeat this for every tab using @for loop and we're finished.

Below you could see the full solution with disabled tabs 2 and 10.

Final thought

Full demo is available on Github and via bower: bower install csstabs.

Do you find this solution usable, because I really like how we could do even more complex things with CSS only nowdays?

Make sure you follow me on Twitter and Medium, more posts are coming soon.