How to override the properties of a CSS class using another CSS class

I am fairly new to CSS3 and I want to be able to do the following:

When I add a class into a an element, it overrides the properties of another class used in this specific element.

Let's say that I have

<a class="left carousel-control" href="#carousel" data-slide="prev">

I want to be able to add a class called bakground-none, that will over override the default background in the class left.

Thanks!


There are different ways in which properties can be overridden. Assuming you have

.left { background: blue }

e.g. any of the following would override it:

a.background-none { background: none; }
body .background-none { background: none; }
.background-none { background: none !important; }

The first two “win” by selector specificity; the third one wins by !important, a blunt instrument.

You could also organize your style sheets so that e.g. the rule

.background-none { background: none; }

wins simply by order, i.e. by being after an otherwise equally “powerful” rule. But this imposes restrictions and requires you to be careful in any reorganization of style sheets.

These are all examples of the CSS Cascade, a crucial but widely misunderstood concept. It defines the exact rules for resolving conflicts between style sheet rules.

P.S. I used left and background-none as they were used in the question. They are examples of class names that should not be used, since they reflect specific rendering and not structural or semantic roles.


Just use !important it will help to override

background:none !important;

Although it is said to be a bad practice, !important can be useful for utility classes, you just need to use it responsibly, check this: When Using important is the right choice


You should override by increasing Specificity of your styling. There are different ways of increasing the Specificity. Usage of !important which effects specificity, is a bad practice because it breaks natural cascading in your style sheet.

Following diagram taken from css-tricks.com will help you produce right specificity for your element based on a points structure. Whichever specificity has higher points, will win. Sounds like a game - doesn't it?

enter image description here

Checkout sample calculations here on css-tricks.com. This will help you understand the concept very well and it will only take 2 minutes.

If you then like to produce and/or compare different specificities by yourself, try this Specificity Calculator: https://specificity.keegan.st/ or you can just use traditional paper/pencil.

For further reading try MDN Web Docs.

All the best for not using !important.