What Is a Child Combinator in CSS?

Dan Gold

Written by Dan

Child combinator selectors are CSS selectors that allow you to target an element based on its direct parent-child relationship with another element.

For example, the selector div > h1 would target any h1 element that is a direct child of a div element.

The advantage of using child combinator selectors is that they provide more specific and precise targeting of elements in a document structure.

For example, the selector div > h1 > p would target any p element that is a direct child of an h1 element, which is itself a direct child of a div element. This can be useful for styling complex document structures without having to use a lot of nested classes or IDs.

When should I use child combinator CSS selectors?

You might want to use child combinator CSS selectors when you need to apply styles to elements that have a direct parent-child relationship, but not to similar elements that are deeper descendants on the page.

They help you maintain a more organized and modular CSS structure by targeting elements based on their immediate relationship in the HTML structure.

Last updated

May 10th, 2023