CSS Tip

A CSS-only array of colors

Do you want to define an array of colors using only CSS? Yes, it's possible! It's limited to only background coloration but can be useful in many situations.

Use an index like any programming language to iterate through the array. Practical when you are already using an index for something else.

Boxes with different colors

.box {
  --colors: red, blue, green, purple; /* colors array */
  --n: 4; /* length of the array  */
  --i: 0; /* index of the color [0 to N-1] */
  
  background:
    linear-gradient(var(--colors)) no-repeat
     0 calc(var(--i)*100%/(var(--n) - 1))
     /100% calc(1px*infinity); /* yes infinity is doing the magic */
}

See the Pen Colors array using only CSS by Temani Afif (@t_afif) on CodePen.

If you want to work with only 2 colors, I have a better version: Color Switch Using Color-Mix()

Related Article: www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/07/define-array-colors-css