various ways to select parent and child elements in CSS

Can someone explain the distinction between:

li ul {color:red;}

and

li > ul {color:yellow;}

I've tested both and they seem to produce identical results.

Answer №1

The primary selector is referred to as the Descendant combinator while the secondary one is known as the Child combinators

Descendant combinator

li ul {color:red;}

On occasions, authors might want selectors to target an element that is a descendant of another element in the document hierarchy (e.g., "an EM element within an H1 element"). Descendant combinators illustrate such relationships. A descendant combinator consists of whitespace between two sets of simple selectors. The selector "A B" signifies an element B that is any descendant of some ancestor element A.

Child combinators

li > ul {color:yellow;}

A child combinator denotes a direct parent-child connection between two elements. It comprises the "greater-than sign" (U+003E, >) character and divides two sets of simple selectors.

Answer №2

The initial selector targets every ul element within li.

The second one specifically focuses on the immediate ul child inside li.

If you want to learn more about selectors, be sure to check out this resource

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