How can I make whitespace around pseudo-elements on an anchor clickable?

November 14, 2022

I’ve built an expanding arrow and I would like the white area "inside" to be clickable (the entire red rectangle).

Unfortunately, I can’t add a div around it so I need an alternate solution.

.sageata {
    height: 2px;
    width: 40px;
    position: relative;
    display: inline-block;
    cursor: pointer;
    margin-right: 15px;
    margin-bottom: 4px;
    transition: all .4s ease;
    background: #000000;
    padding: 0 !important;
}

.sageata:hover {
    width: 50px;
    margin-right: 5px;
    background: #000000 !important;
}

.sageata::before,
.sageata::after {
    content: "";
    background: #000000;
    position: absolute;
    height: 2px;
    width: 15px;
    border-radius: 30%;
}

.sageata::before {
    right: -2px;
    bottom: -5px;
    transform: rotate(-45deg);
    top: auto !important;
    left: auto !important;
}

.sageata::after {
    right: -2px;
    top: -5px;
    transform: rotate(45deg);
}

<a class="sageata" href="#"></a>

>Solution :

You could increase the height of the anchor and use a background gradient rather than a full-size color.

.sageata {
  height: 24px;
  width: 40px;
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
  cursor: pointer;
  margin-right: 15px;
  margin-bottom: 4px;
  transition: all .4s ease;
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, 
    transparent 0%, 
    transparent calc(50% - 1px),  
    #000 calc(50% - 1px), 
    #000 calc(50% + 1px), 
    transparent calc(50% + 1px), 
    transparent 100%
  );
  padding: 0 !important;
}

.sageata:hover {
  width: 50px;
  margin-right: 5px;
}

.sageata::before,
.sageata::after {
  content: "";
  background: #000000;
  position: absolute;
  height: 2px;
  width: 15px;
  border-radius: 30%;
}

.sageata::before {
  right: -2px;
  bottom: 5px;
  transform: rotate(-45deg);
  top: auto !important;
  left: auto !important;
}

.sageata::after {
  right: -2px;
  top: 5px;
  transform: rotate(45deg);
}