What is preventing the CSS selector from functioning for <li> elements nested within a tag?

Question

What is preventing the CSS selector from functioning for <li> elements nested within a tag?

Studying for my exam, I decided to practice answering some past questions without looking at the markscheme. One question in particular has me stumped:

The question asks to explain the effect and identify which elements will be affected by the following rule:

p ul li {
   color:blue;
}

I created a simple HTML layout on JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/2nkmzgv2/

Here is the code snippet:

<p>
  <ul>
      <li>Should this text be blue?</li>
  </ul>
</p>

As I tested it out, I noticed that the text did not change to blue as expected. This left me wondering if nothing was meant to happen at all or if there was an issue with my syntax or method in the HTML content.

html css css-selectors

Answer 1

Answer №1

It seems that ol and ul items are not allowed inside of p elements.

Should ol and ul be placed inside or outside of tags?

This question may be a bit tricky for your exam. It's important to review the HTML specifications as well, as CSS knowledge alone might not be sufficient.

The behavior you're experiencing is because  cannot contain block-level elements like <ul> or <ol>. Browsers (e.g., Chrome) recognize this limitation and try to handle the illegal structure by placing the block element between two paragraphs:

https://i.sstatic.net/FaC2p.png

Due to this handling, the rule declared for the li element does not take effect.

p ul li {
  color: blue;
}

<p>
  Hello
  <ul>
    <li>I'm never styled in blue.</li>
  </ul>
  Goodbye
</p>

Be mindful of other quiz questions like:

a a { color:red }
p p { color:blue; }

Answer 2

It seems that ol and ul items are not allowed inside of p elements.

Should ol and ul be placed inside or outside of tags?

This question may be a bit tricky for your exam. It's important to review the HTML specifications as well, as CSS knowledge alone might not be sufficient.

The behavior you're experiencing is because  cannot contain block-level elements like <ul> or <ol>. Browsers (e.g., Chrome) recognize this limitation and try to handle the illegal structure by placing the block element between two paragraphs:

https://i.sstatic.net/FaC2p.png

Due to this handling, the rule declared for the li element does not take effect.

p ul li {
  color: blue;
}

<p>
  Hello
  <ul>
    <li>I'm never styled in blue.</li>
  </ul>
  Goodbye
</p>

Be mindful of other quiz questions like:

a a { color:red }
p p { color:blue; }

Answer 3

Answer №2

The HTML is considered invalid because having a list inside paragraph tags is not allowed as shown in this source.

This also means that the CSS styling will not affect the li element. To apply the CSS correctly, use the following code:

ul li {
    color: blue;
}

Make sure your HTML looks like this:

<ul>
    <li>Should this text be blue?</li>
</ul>

Check out the latest version of JSFiddle for more details.

Answer 4

The HTML is considered invalid because having a list inside paragraph tags is not allowed as shown in this source.

This also means that the CSS styling will not affect the li element. To apply the CSS correctly, use the following code:

ul li {
    color: blue;
}

Make sure your HTML looks like this:

<ul>
    <li>Should this text be blue?</li>
</ul>

Check out the latest version of JSFiddle for more details.

Answer 5

Answer №3

"According to the HTML specification, it is not valid for list elements such as ol and ul to be nested within paragraph (p) elements. This rule applies specifically when a sentence includes a bulleted list." Referenced from HTML spec

Answer 6

"According to the HTML specification, it is not valid for list elements such as ol and ul to be nested within paragraph (p) elements. This rule applies specifically when a sentence includes a bulleted list." Referenced from HTML spec

What is preventing the CSS selector from functioning for <li> elements nested within a <p> tag?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

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