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7.1 CSS Combinators

A combinator is something that explains the relationship between the selectors.

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 1: descendant selector

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 2: child selector

div > p {
  background-color: yellow;
}

Adjacent Sibling Selector ( + )

The adjacent sibling selector is used to select an element that is directly after another specific element. Sibling elements must have the same parent element, and "adjacent" means "immediately following". The following example selects the first <p> element that are placed immediately after <div> elements:

Example 3: adjacent sibling selector

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 4: general sibling selector

div ˜ p {
  background-color: yellow;
}

All CSS Combinator Selectors