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HTML How to Make a Website Adding Pages to a Website Build the Contact Page

Posted by Kitty Zee
Kitty Zee
1,432 Points

Why was a class used instead of an id tag # for the Contact Details list items?

I thought they both do the same thing (call on an element in your HTML) except class is used when you have multiple instances and id tags are only used for one instance.

3 Answers

Simon Woodard
Simon Woodard
6,545 Points
Simon Woodard
Simon Woodard
6,545 Points

They do indeed do the same thing in that they identify the object to be styled. However in CSS, an id is given a higher priority than a class.

So you can declare an object to have a class and an id, if you were to assign conflicting styles, the id would win out.

Aina R.
Aina R.
Courses Plus Student 1,527 Points

Thanks for this.

Kitty Zee
Kitty Zee
1,432 Points

Thanks for replying. I had no idea there was any type of prioritization between the two. I'll have to play around with that and see how it works. Thanks Simon!

Aina R.
PLUS
Aina R.
Courses Plus Student 1,527 Points
Aina R.
Aina R.
Courses Plus Student 1,527 Points

You completely right here : "I thought they both do the same thing (call on an element in your HTML) except class is used when you have multiple instances and id tags are only used for one instance."

About why a class was used instead of an id, was just about choice.

Kitty Zee
Kitty Zee
1,432 Points

Thanks for confirming, Aina. I was afraid I was missing something there :)

Chris Malcolm
Chris Malcolm
2,909 Points
Chris Malcolm
Chris Malcolm
2,909 Points

Yes agree with aina, its up to the designer to choose what's best. I often like to use classes for more heavily styled elements even if there is only one. And if it is more of something that is for identifiing elements/holding data for access via javascript selector, I will more often use an Id.

Kitty Zee
Kitty Zee
1,432 Points

Thanks for the advice, Chris. I haven't gotten to javascript or any complicated coding yet, but that's something for me to look forward to once I am making decisions about classes and ids to write better code :)