How to apply the style only if next element has specific class?

Markup:

<li class="divider"></li>
<li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a>
<li class="divider"></li>
<li><a href="#">Blog</a></li>

How do I add a style the first .divider only if .active is the next sibling?

I was thinking of .divider + .active but that would apply styles to .active.

.divider {
  border-left: 1px solid #d0d0d0;
}
.active {
  background: #fff;
}
// when the next sibling is .active, border-color: transparent;

Solution

You cannot select a previous element in CSS as of now, what you can do is either manually target the class by providing some distinct class to it like

<li class="divider target_me"></li>

And than simply use

ul.class_name li.target_me {
   /* Styles goes here */
}

Else, if it's the first child of li

You can use ul.class_name li:first-child, if it's not, simply use nth-of-type(n), substitute n with the nth number of your li, this way you don't need to call classes too.

For example

ul.class_name li:nth-of-type(2) {
   /* Styles here */
}

The above selector will select 2nd child of ul element with that specified class name.

Still not happy with CSS? You can opt for JS/jQuery solution, but if the markup is static, I would suggest you to use nth and if you have access to markup you can atleast call class on the element you want to style..

Note: You cannot nest li tag as a direct child to li, consider changing your markup to below ..

<ul>
   <li>
       <a href="#">Home</a>
       <ul>
          <li>Sub</li>
       </ul>
   </li>
</ul>