Z-Index Relative or Absolute?

Solution 1:

z-index is relative. See this detailed answer, which I wrote for a similar question.

If none of the other elements have a defined z-index, using z-index: 1 will be fine.

Model: How is the z-index determined?

                                         z-index
<div id=A>                                Auto 1
    <div id=B>                            Auto 1.1
       <div id=C style="z-index:1"></div>          Manual 1
       <div id=D></div>                   Auto 1.1.2
    </div>                                
    <div id=E></div>                      Auto 1.2
</div>
<div id=F></div>                          Auto 2

First, the direct child nodes of the body are walked through. Two elements are encountered: #A and #F. These are assigned a z-index of 1 and 2. This step is repeated for each (child) element in the document.

Then, the manually set z-index properties are checked. If two z-index values equal, their position in the document tree are compared.

Your case:

<div id=X style="z-index:1">          Z-index 1
    <div id=Y style="z-index:3"></div> Z-index 3
</div>
<div id=Z style="z-index:2"></div>    Z-index 2

You'd expect #Y to overlap #Z, because a z-index of 3 is clearly higher than 2. Well, you're wrong: #Y is a child of #X, with a z-index of 1. Two is higher than one, and thus, #Z will be shown over #X (and #Y).

Here is a plunker to visualize this a little better, or try the snippet below ,

.redbox,
.greenbox,
.bluebox {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100px;
  position: relative;
  color: #fff;
  padding: 3px;
}

.redbox {
  background: red;
  z-index: 1;
}

.greenbox {
  background: green;
  top: 40px;
  left: 40px;
  z-index: 3;
}

.bluebox {
  background: blue;
  top: -20px;
  left: 20px;
  z-index: 2;
}

<div id=X class='redbox'>z: 1
  <div id=Y class='greenbox'> z: 3</div>
</div>
<div id=Z class='bluebox'>z: 2</div>

Solution 2:

Afaik, z-index doesn't work unless that element is set to position: relative; If that same element had a child with position: relative; and the z-index was set higher, the child would show on top of its parent.

So it has elements of both 'absolute' and 'relative' stack order as you phrased it.

All browsers pretty much handle it the same, I think.