What is the difference between '>' and a space in CSS selectors?

A > B will only select B that are direct children to A (that is, there are no other elements inbetween).

A B will select any B that are inside A, even if there are other elements between them.


> vs. Space

Consider the two scenarios div > span { } vs. div span { }

Here, the (space) selects all the all the <span> elements inside <div> element even if they are nested inside more than one element. The > selects all the children of <div> element but if they are not inside another element.

Take a look at two examples:

> (Greater than):

div > span {
  color: #FFBA00 ;
}
<body>
  <div>
    <div>
      <span>Hello...</span>
      <p><span>Hello!</span></p>
    </div>

    <span>World!</span>
  </div>
</body>

This one just selects the <span>Hello...</span> (because it's immediately after the nested div tag), and <span>World!</span> and it won't look for the <span> inside <p> tag because it's not immediately after a div tag.

Space

div span {
  color: #0A0 ;
}
<body>
  <div>
    <div>
      <span>Hello...</span>
      <p><span>Hello!</span></p>
    </div>

    <span>World!</span>
  </div>
</body>

This one selects all the span tags, even if they are nested inside other tags.


div.card > div.name matches <div class='card'>....<div class='name'>xxx</div>...</div> but it doesn't match <div class='card'>....<div class='foo'> ... <div class='name'>xxx</div>..</div>....</div>

div.card div.name matches both.

That is, the > selector makes sure that the selected element on the right side of the > is an immidiate child of the element on its left side.

The syntax without the > matches any <div class='name'> that is a descendant (not only a child) of <div class='card'>.


> is the child selector. It specifies only immediate child elements and not any descendant (including grandchildren, grand-grandchildren etc.) as in the second example without the >.

The child selector is not supported by IE 6 and lower. A great compatibility table is here.

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Css

Css Selectors

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