Varied characteristics of pseudo-classes when used with or without spacing

There seems to be an issue related to CSS pseudo-classes, specifically :last-child, but it may apply to others as well.

  1. If we consider the following simple HTML:
<body>
    <p>Paragraph1</p>
    <p>Paragraph2</p>
</body>
  1. And then add the following CSS:

body:last-child{
color:red;
}
<body>
<p>Paragraph1</p>
<p>Paragraph2</p>
</body>

Both paragraphs will be marked in red without any space between them

  1. However, when a space is added between .body and :last-child, only the second paragraph turns red. This behavior has been observed in Google Chrome, with no effect on the snippet tool.

body: last-child{
color:red;
}
<body>
<p>Paragraph1</p>
<p>Paragraph2</p>
</body>

Question: Can anyone explain why this happens? Is there more information available on the impact of including or excluding spaces for pseudo-classes?

Answer №1

This is the final paragraph, not the end of the body.

Therefore, implement the following code:

body p:last-child{
   text-decoration: underline;
}

A space is crucial in between elements for the CSS selector to function correctly.

Answer №2

It is important to note that pseudo-elements should be used without any space in between the element and the colon. For example:

body p:last-child{ color:blue; }

Answer №3

1. No Spacing Applied

body:last-child {
  color: red;
}
<body>
  <p>Paragraph1</p>
  <p>Paragraph2</p>
</body>

The code above turns all p elements to red due to the application of color: red to the body and its child elements. However, keep in mind that body:last-child targets a specific parent element, not the last child of the body.


2. With Spacing Included

body: last-child{
  color:red;
}

This syntax is invalid and will not result in any styling changes. To validate your CSS code, you can use the W3C CSS Validator.


3. Correct Solution:

body p:last-child { /* Targeting the last paragraph within the body */
  color: red;
}

It's recommended to avoid using child selectors like this in Stack Overflow snippets as it can be tricky to style them properly. Additionally, <link> and <script> tags may be automatically added to the markup, which could disrupt the child selector functionality.

Answer №4

When using the body:last-child selector, you are targeting the last instance of a body element (of which there is only one). This means that any content within this body element will be styled with the color red.

It's important to note that the body: last-child selector is invalid and will not work as intended.

If you want to target the last child of a paragraph within the body element, you should use the body p:last-child selector instead.

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