Styling Even and Odd List Elements: Pseudo-Classes vs. nth-child

When trying to achieve alternating colors for list items using CSS pseudo-classes, you may encounter issues. While it might seem logical to use li:odd and li:even for this purpose, the behavior can be unpredictable.

To effectively style even and odd instances of list items, consider using the following approach:

Instead of:

li { color: blue }
li:odd { color:green }
li:even { color:red }

Use:

li {
    color: black;
}
li:nth-child(odd) {
    color: #777;
}
li:nth-child(even) {
    color: blue;
}

By replacing :odd and :even with :nth-child(odd) and :nth-child(even), the desired alternating coloring effect is achieved. This is because :nth-child allows you to select elements based on their position within the list, ensuring that the correct styling is applied to each item.