Minimum and maximum value of z-index?

Question

I have a div in my HTML page. I am showing this div based on some condition, but the div is displaying behind the HTML element where I pointed the mouse cursor.

I have tried all values for z-index from 0 - 999999. Can anyone tell me why this is happening?

Is there any minimum or maximum value of Z-INDEX property of CSS?

.divClass {       position: absolute;        left: 25px;        top: 25px;        width: 320px;       height: 300px;        z-index: 1000;   }

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">    <tr>      <td>        <asp:HyperLink ID="lnkProgram" runat="server"></asp:HyperLink>      </td>    </tr>    <tr>       <td>           <div class="divClass">             Some Data           </div>       </td>    </tr>   </table>

I am showing and hiding the div with .divClass onclick via the <asp:hyperlink> using jQuery.

Answer 1

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visuren.html#z-index

'z-index'

Value: auto | <integer> | inherit

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#numbers

Some value types may have integer values (denoted by <integer>) or real number values (denoted by <number>). Real numbers and integers are specified in decimal notation only. An <integer> consists of one or more digits "0" to "9". A <number> can either be an <integer>, or it can be zero or more digits followed by a dot (.) followed by one or more digits. Both integers and real numbers may be preceded by a "-" or "+" to indicate the sign. -0 is equivalent to 0 and is not a negative number.

Note that many properties that allow an integer or real number as a value actually restrict the value to some range, often to a non-negative value.

So basically there are no limitations for z-index value in the CSS standard, but I guess most browsers limit it to signed 32-bit values (−2147483648 to +2147483647) in practice (64 would be a little off the top, and it doesn't make sense to use anything less than 32 bits these days)

Answer 2

My tests show that z-index: 2147483647 is the maximum value, tested on FF 3.0.1 for OS X. I discovered a integer overflow bug: if you type z-index: 2147483648 (which is 2147483647 + 1) the element just goes behind all other elements. At least the browser doesn't crash.

And the lesson to learn is that you should beware of entering too large values for the z-index property because they wrap around.