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CSS Combinators

 

A CSS selector can contain more than one simple selector. Between the simple selectors, we can include a combinator.


There are four different combinators in CSS:

- descendant selector (space)
- child selector (>)
- adjacent sibling selector (+)
- general sibling selector (~)

Descendant Selector

The descendant selector matches all elements that are descendants of a specified element.

 

The following example selects all <p> elements inside <div> elements:

EXAMPLE:

div p {
  background-color: yellow;
}

Child Selector

The child selector selects all elements that are the children of a specified element.

 

The following example selects all <p> elements that are children of a <div> element:

EXAMPLE:

div > p {
  background-color: yellow;
}

Adjacent Sibling Selector

The adjacent sibling selector selects all elements that are the adjacent siblings of a specified element.

 

Sibling elements must have the same parent element, and "adjacent" means "immediately following".

 

The following example selects all <p> elements that are placed immediately after <div> elements:

EXAMPLE:

div + p {
  background-color: yellow;
}

General Sibling Selector

The general sibling selector selects all elements that are siblings of a specified element.

 

The following example selects all <p> elements that are siblings of <div> elements: 

EXAMPLE:

div ~ p {
  background-color: yellow;

}

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