Mnemonics for remembering the CSS order of top right bottom left

Whenever one specifies values for all directions in a single CSS property, one has to adhere to the standard order: top comes first, right second, bottom third, and left fourth. This post mentions three mnemonics for remembering that order.

Example: The four CSS properties

    margin-top: 10;
    margin-bottom: 9;
    margin-left: 5;
    margin-right: 4;

can be written as a single property:

    margin: 10 4 9 5;

Other examples are border and padding. Three suggestions for remembering the order:

• tar ball: is a mnemonic for trbl, the first characters of top, right, bottom, left.
• trouble: an alternative to tar ball, suggested by Josh Feuerstein and Rick Waldron.
• clockwise: means that you enumerate the sides of a rectangle, starting at 12 o’clock, continuing clockwise. Suggested by Franz Graf.

Even with the mnemonics in my tool belt, I often add an explanatory comment:

    margin: 10 4 9 5;  /* trbl */

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