Question

How can I target some child elements except where the parent is the first or last child to its parent?

See the comments in my CSS for a better idea of what I mean.

CSS:

/* Always apply */
tr th, tr td
{
    text-align: left;
    vertical-align: top;
}

/* Apply to all except first <tr> */
tr th, tr td
{
    padding-top: 5px;
}

/* Apply to all except last <tr> */
tr th, tr td
{
    border-bottom: 1px solid #c4c4c4;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
}

HTML:

<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Born</th>
        <td><time datetime="1986-11-05">5<sup>th</sup> November 1986</time></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th>Gender</th>
        <td>Male</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th>Sports</th>
        <td>Football<br />Tennis</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th>Teams</th>
        <td>Liverpool FC<br />Spain FC</td>
    </tr>
</table>

Answer 1

Well you have a solution in the questions you linked. Use the :not() pseudo-class:

/* Apply to all except first <tr> */
tr:not(:first-child) th, tr:not(:first-child) td{
    padding-top: 5px;
}

/* Apply to all except last <tr> */
tr:not(:last-child) th, tr:not(:last-child) td{
    border-bottom: 1px solid #c4c4c4;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
}

fiddle

(this won’t work in IE 8 though)

---

Alternative for IE 7+, if the border styles can change:

/* Apply to all */
tr th, tr td{
    border-top: 1px solid #c4c4c4;
    padding-top: 5px;
}

/* Remove styles from first */
tr:first-child th, tr:first-child td{
    border-top: 0;
    padding-top: 0;
}

or

/* Apply to all but first */
tr + tr th, tr + tr td{
    border-top: 1px solid #c4c4c4;
    padding-top: 5px;
}

(but not sure if + is supported by IE 7)