How come the nth-child selector remains unaffected by other selectors?

Here is an example that I have created for this issue: http://jsfiddle.net/SXEty/

<style>
table td, th { padding: 8px; text-align: left; }
table td:nth-child(1) { color: red; }
table td { color: blue }
</style>
...
<table>
    <tr><th>Name</th><th>Age</th><th>City</th></tr>
    <tr><td>Bob</td><td>27</td><td>Los Angeles</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Charlie</td><td>34</td><td>San Diego</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Daniel</td><td>41</td><td>San Francisco</td></tr>
</table>

I am intrigued by the fact that the first column is displaying as red instead of blue.

In my CSS rules, I initially set every first child element to have a color of 'red'. However, in the subsequent line of CSS code, all table data elements are given a color of 'blue'. My expectation was that the second rule (color: blue) would take precedence over the previous one (color: red). Could it be that the nth-child property has priority over the generic selector? Moreover, does this behavior hold true across different web browsers?

Answer №1

Using the selector td:nth-child(1) is more precise compared to just using td.

If you're interested in learning more about CSS specificity, I recommend checking out a fun Star Wars-themed explanation.

Answer №2

Due to the specificity of the table td:nth-child(1) selector, it will take precedence over table td, even if the latter is defined later in the CSS.

An intriguing aspect is that when targeting a parent ID with table td, all elements will be styled as blue - regardless of whether table td:nth-child(1) appears later in the stylesheet.

http://jsfiddle.net/mLrAf/2/

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