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CSS The Selectors Solution

Posted by vincenzo IEVA
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vincenzo IEVA
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 14,211 Points

Hi, what would be the difference between ul > li{..} and ul li{..}?

Hi, what would be the difference between ul > li{..} and ul li{..}? I mean, are they the same thing?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

The ">" is the direct child selector. The item on the left must be the direct parent of the item on the right.

A space creates a descendant selector, where the item on the left must be a container of the item on the right, but there could be any number of elements in between.

They are likely to appear to work similarly, because the rules of HTML say that all the children of a "ul" must be "li" elements. But where lists are nested they could differ. For example:

<ul>
  <li>                  <!-- this would be selected by either -->
    <ol>
      <li> ... </li>    <!-- this would be selected by "ul li" but not by "ul > li" -->
    </ol>
  </li>
</ul>