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 CSS3:
- 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 immediate children of a specified element.
The following example selects all <p> elements that are immediate 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;
}