Using only CSS, show div on hover over another element

Question

I would like to show a div when someone hovers over an <a> element, but I would like to do this in CSS and not JavaScript. Do you know how this can be achieved?

Answer 1

You can do something like this:

div {      display: none;  }        a:hover + div {      display: block;  }

<a>Hover over me!</a>  <div>Stuff shown on hover</div>

This uses the adjacent sibling selector, and is the basis of the suckerfish dropdown menu.

HTML5 allows anchor elements to wrap almost anything, so in that case the div element can be made a child of the anchor. Otherwise the principle is the same - use the :hover pseudo-class to change the display property of another element.

Answer 2

.showme {    display: none;  }    .showhim:hover .showme {    display: block;  }

<div class="showhim">HOVER ME    <div class="showme">hai</div>  </div>

jsfiddle

Since this answer is popular I think a small explanation is needed. Using this method when you hover on the internal element, it wont disappear. Because the .showme is inside .showhim it will not disappear when you move your mouse between the two lines of text (or whatever it is).

These are example of quirqs you need to take care of when implementing such behavior.

It all depends what you need this for. This method is better for a menu style scenario, while Yi Jiang's is better for tooltips.