How to get a parent element to appear above child [duplicate]

Question

I have two nested CSS elements. I need to get the parent to be on top, that is, above in z-axis, of the child element. Just setting z-index is not sufficient.

I can't set a negative z-index on the child, that'll set it to below the page container on my actual page. Is this the only method?

http://jsbin.com/ovafo/edit

.parent {
  position:  relative;
  width: 750px;
  height: 7150px;
  background: red;
  border: solid 1px #000;
  z-index: 1;
}
.child {
  position: absolute;
  background-color: blue;
  z-index: 0;
  color: white;
  top: 0;
}
.wrapper
{
  position: relative;
  background: green;
  z-index: 10;
}

<div class="wrapper">
  <div class="parent">
    parent parent
    <div class="child">
      child child child
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Spume

Answer 1

Set a negative z-index for the child, and remove the one set on the parent.

.parent {
    position: relative;
    width: 350px;
    height: 150px;
    background: red;
    border: solid 1px #000;
}
.parent2 {
    position: relative;
    width: 350px;
    height: 40px;
    background: red;
    border: solid 1px #000;
}
.child {
    position: relative;
    background-color: blue;
    height: 200px;
}
.wrapper {
    position: relative;
    background: green;
    height: 350px;
}

<div class="wrapper">
    <div class="parent">parent 1 parent 1
        <div class="child">child child child</div>
    </div>
    <div class="parent2">parent 2 parent 2
    </div>
</div>

https://jsfiddle.net/uov5h84f/

Stoat

Thanks, but I can't set a negative z-index on the child, that'll set it to below the page container on my actual page. Is this the only method? – Spume

May be you can experiment by setting z-index to other elements in the page and finally get the order in which you want them to be displayed. – Stoat

As a rule of thumb, don't use z-index on your layout. Use it only for very specific scenarios like in this case and you will find it easier to manage. – Rainstorm

Toskan: Why do you have to comment when you have nothing of value to add? – Stoat

@Toskan : This solution works well if you set up the situation where the parent has no z-index but further up the DOM somewhere you have a z-index set, or you don't mind the child existing below the html element in the stacking order. Learn; experiment; your problem is easily solved by this answer but you didn't give it a chance because you didn't learn what was actually happening in this answer and expected it to work right out of the box. – Biblical

@Biblical looking at zielu1 answer I actually understand. Because he posted some code – Orland

The question clearly asks how to get the parent above the child. You posted a fiddle of the child being above the parent. -1. – Ier

KJ Tsanaktsidis: The answer was posted in November, 2009 and the fiddle was long lost and edited by an anonymous user on October, 2014. You did not even read my answer. You happened to have just clicked on an outdated fiddle which does not even have z-index anywhere. Read the answer before you jump the gun. – Stoat

There is amazing article about z-index: philipwalton.com/articles/what-no-one-told-you-about-z-index – Starrstarred

Answer 2

Fortunately a solution exists. You must add a wrapper for the parent and change z-index of this wrapper, for example 10, and set z-index for the child to -1:

.parent {
    position: relative;
    width: 750px;
    height: 7150px;
    background: red;
    border: solid 1px #000;
    z-index: initial;
}

.child {
    position: relative;
    background-color: blue;
    z-index: -1;
    color: white;
}

.wrapper {
    position: relative;
    background: green;
    z-index: 10;
}

<div class="wrapper">
    <div class="parent">parent parent
        <div class="child">child child child</div>
    </div>
</div>

Claresta

jsfiddle.net/sidonaldson/a9wQJ – Yeasty

Not working in Chrome 61 – Pritchett

Thanks, can you explain why this overrides stacking order context? – Putamen

Answer 3

Some of these answers do work, but setting position: absolute; and z-index: 10; seemed pretty strong just to achieve the required effect. I found the following was all that was required, though unfortunately, I've not been able to reduce it any further.

HTML:

<div class="wrapper">
    <div class="parent">
        <div class="child">
            ...
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

CSS:

.wrapper {
    position: relative;
    z-index: 0;
}

.child {
    position: relative;
    z-index: -1;
}

I used this technique to achieve a bordered hover effect for image links. There's a bit more code here but it uses the concept above to show the border over the top of the image.

http://jsfiddle.net/g7nP5/

Killing

Answer 4

You would need to use position:relative or position:absolute on both the parent and child to use z-index.

Belike

Thanks for that, I updated the example, doesn't seem to help. – Spume

sorry, I didnt see the full nature of your request. you can definitely NOT set the child element behind the parent. You can only do so for sibling elements. – Belike

Answer 5

Since your divs are position:absolute, they're not really nested as far as position is concerned. On your jsbin page I switched the order of the divs in the HTML to:

<div class="child"><div class="parent"></div></div>

and the red box covered the blue box, which I think is what you're looking for.

Betoken

Answer 6

Cracked it. Basically, what's happening is that when you set the z-index to the negative, it actually ignores the parent element, whether it is positioned or not, and sits behind the next positioned element, which in your case was your main container. Therefore, you have to put your parent element in another, positioned div, and your child div will sit behind that.

Working that out was a life saver for me, as my parent element specifically couldn't be positioned, in order for my code to work.

I found all this incredibly useful to achieve the effect that's instructed on here: Using only CSS, show div on hover over <a>

Zweig

Answer 7

style:

.parent{
  overflow:hidden;
  width:100px;
}

.child{
  width:200px;
}

body:

<div class="parent">
   <div class="child"></div>
</div>

Lamson

this doesnt do what the OP wants – Ulaulah

Not even related to the question – Decoteau