Optimizing CSS selector performance

Although the performance variance is minimal, I am curious to know which CSS selector is faster?

div.class{ }

or

.class{ }

Answer №1

When it comes to CSS Selectors, they are processed from right to left and then displayed, with the entire rule always being parsed. This leads me to believe that using .class may be slightly faster than using div.class. However, the speed also depends on how many elements have that class and the complexity of the rule.

With all of that being said, I recommend checking out the first answer at this link:

Answer №2

The difference in performance is so small (if it's even noticeable) that it's not worth considering.

If you need styles to only affect elements with a specific class, use div.class. Otherwise, just use .class based on your styling needs rather than focusing on minor performance gains.

Please keep in mind: there are certain selectors that can be relatively slow, such as .class > *. However, even for selectors with poor performance, and even if you're contemplating optimizing things at this stage of your project, there are many other priorities to address before delving into CSS selector optimization.

Answer №3

It's possible that the speed may vary depending on the browser you are using. For more information on selectors, you can visit this link: http://jsperf.com/jquery-performance-bn/3

While using Opera 11.62, I noticed that selecting div.class was much faster in my browser.

Answer №4

In the world of CSS, using the .class {} selector is more efficient than div.class {} because the browser only needs to verify that the element contains the specified class in the former. On the other hand, in the latter case, the browser not only checks for the specified class but also confirms that the element is indeed a div.

Answer №5

I can't even recall posing this question, but here's the main idea:

The difference in performance is small, UNLESS using a JS library like jQuery. When assessing $('.class'), jQuery scans all elements in the DOM. When evaluating $('div.class'), it only looks at divs. Therefore, depending on the size of the DOM and its elements, the performance gap can be quite significant.

Essentially, pure CSS performance remains nearly identical, but performance when passing through a Javascript selector engine might show noticeable differences. I believe that was my intent in asking this question. Thank you to everyone for your input, you all deserve upvotes :)

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