css: dir="rtl" VS style="direction:rtl"

P

3

15

I know how to style when the direction is inline

<div dir="rtl">foo</div>

div[dir="rtl"]
{
 ....;
}

But how to style

<div style="direction:rtl">foo</div> ?

Both behaves as expected (right "alignment" of text) but I need finer tweaking for some elements inside (float, text-align...) and I can't set up my rule correctly in the second case.

I can't edit the html. I MUST use style="direction:rtl".

Prior answered 19/3, 2014 at 15:57 Comment(0)

C

9

As you can't modify the HTML, a really really hacky selector would be:

div[style*="direction:rtl"] {
    ...
}

JSFiddle demo.

Note that I'm using style*= as opposed to just style= as this will also match elements which have more than just direction:rtl declared within the element's style property.

For extra strength in the selector, you could also use [style*="direction: rtl"] to handle style attributes which separate the values from the properties with a space:

[style*="direction:rtl"], [style*="direction: rtl"] { ... }

Alternatively in this case you could just match on a style attribute which contains "rtl", as I'm pretty sure this combination of characters isn't used in any other property (ignoring external resources like background image file names):

[style*="rtl"] { ... }

Updated JSFiddle demo.

Cakewalk answered 19/3, 2014 at 15:59 Comment(8)

Or if that div is for example the fifth div, you could use div:nth-child(5) { ... }. – Rosemari 19/3, 2014 at 16:0

1+ You could also use div[style~="direction:rtl"] which will work in instances like this: jsfiddle.net/5tS8u .. "represents an attr whose value is a whitespace-separated list" .. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Attribute_selectors – Gunnery 19/3, 2014 at 16:1

@JoshCrozier *= is a better selector as the selector may not be separated with white space (for instance, it may end in a ; (this breaks your JSFiddle demo: jsfiddle.net/5tS8u/1)). – Cakewalk 19/3, 2014 at 16:3

+1 However what if it looks like direction: rtl? :) – Bag 19/3, 2014 at 16:5

@JamesDonnelly Yep, you're right - I added that comment when your answer was still [style=".."] – Gunnery 19/3, 2014 at 16:5

@JamesDonnelly Alternatively you could do div[style*="direction"][style*="rtl"] with multiple attr selectors. Here is a demo – Bag 19/3, 2014 at 16:38

@HashemQolami sure, but you could still have a direction of ltr and a background image which has rtl in the path, for instance. – Cakewalk 19/3, 2014 at 17:14

@JamesDonnelly: just as your solution breaks if there's a comment that contains /*direction :rtl*/. Just kidding. Your solution was a life-saver and your jsfiddle was really appreciated. Thank you. PS: for your information in my special case direction was spelled DIRECTION (sharepoint sucks) – Prior 20/3, 2014 at 10:57

H

34

Use dir="auto" on forms and inserted text in order to automatically detect the direction of content supplied at run-time

<div dir="auto">Hello, world!</div>
<br/>
<div dir="auto">لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله</div>
<br/>
<input type="text" dir="auto" value="Hello, world!" > 
<br/><br/>
<input type="text" dir="auto" value="لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله" >

JSFIDDLE Demo https://jsfiddle.net/80k0drsf/

Hypnoanalysis answered 1/7, 2016 at 10:37 Comment(2)

I didn't downvote but I suppose because I stated that I don't have access to html. – Prior 10/4, 2017 at 8:7

sometimes you want different direction, regardless of the content's language, so you don't want the browser to decide. – Icelander 29/10, 2020 at 17:23

C

9

As you can't modify the HTML, a really really hacky selector would be:

div[style*="direction:rtl"] {
    ...
}

JSFiddle demo.

Note that I'm using style*= as opposed to just style= as this will also match elements which have more than just direction:rtl declared within the element's style property.

For extra strength in the selector, you could also use [style*="direction: rtl"] to handle style attributes which separate the values from the properties with a space:

[style*="direction:rtl"], [style*="direction: rtl"] { ... }

Alternatively in this case you could just match on a style attribute which contains "rtl", as I'm pretty sure this combination of characters isn't used in any other property (ignoring external resources like background image file names):

[style*="rtl"] { ... }