[css] Apply CSS Style to child elements

I want to apply styles only to the table inside the DIV with a particular class:

Note: I'd rather use a css-selector for children elements.

Why does the #1 works and #2 doesn't?

1:

div.test th, div.test td, div.test caption {padding:40px 100px 40px 50px;}

2:

div.test th, td, caption {padding:40px 100px 40px 50px;}

HTML:

<html>
    <head>
        <style>
            div.test > th, td, caption {padding:40px 100px 40px 50px;}
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div>
            <table border="2">
                <tr><td>some</td></tr>
                <tr><td>data</td></tr>
                <tr><td>here</td></tr>
            </table>
        </div>
        <div class="test">
            <table  border="2">
                <tr><td>some</td></tr>
                <tr><td>data</td></tr>
                <tr><td>here</td></tr>
            </table>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

What am I doing wrong?

This question is related to css css-selectors

The answer is


The > selector matches direct children only, not descendants.

You want

div.test th, td, caption {}

or more likely

div.test th, div.test td, div.test caption {}

Edit:

The first one says

  div.test th, /* any <th> underneath a <div class="test"> */
  td,          /* or any <td> anywhere at all */
  caption      /* or any <caption> */

Whereas the second says

  div.test th,     /* any <th> underneath a <div class="test"> */
  div.test td,     /* or any <td> underneath a <div class="test"> */
  div.test caption /* or any <caption> underneath a <div class="test">  */

In your original the div.test > th says any <th> which is a **direct** child of <div class="test">, which means it will match <div class="test"><th>this</th></div> but won't match <div class="test"><table><th>this</th></table></div>


If you want to add style in all child and no specification for html tag then use it.

Parent tag div.parent

child tag inside the div.parent like <a>, <input>, <label> etc.

code : div.parent * {color: #045123!important;}

You can also remove important, its not required


div.test td, div.test caption, div.test th 

works for me.

The child selector > does not work in IE6.


.test * {padding: 40px 100px 40px 50px;}

This code can do the trick as well, using the SCSS syntax

.parent {
  & > * {
    margin-right: 15px;
    &:last-child {
      margin-right: 0;
    }
  }
}

Here is some code that I recently wrote. I think that it provides a basic explanation of combining class/ID names with pseudoclasses.

_x000D_
_x000D_
.content {_x000D_
  width: 800px;_x000D_
  border: 1px solid black;_x000D_
  border-radius: 10px;_x000D_
  box-shadow: 0 0 5px 2px grey;_x000D_
  margin: 30px auto 20px auto;_x000D_
  /*height:200px;*/_x000D_
_x000D_
}_x000D_
p.red {_x000D_
  color: red;_x000D_
}_x000D_
p.blue {_x000D_
  color: blue;_x000D_
}_x000D_
p#orange {_x000D_
  color: orange;_x000D_
}_x000D_
p#green {_x000D_
  color: green;_x000D_
}
_x000D_
<!DOCTYPE html>_x000D_
<html>_x000D_
_x000D_
<head>_x000D_
  <title>Class practice</title>_x000D_
  <link href="wrench_favicon.ico" rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" />_x000D_
</head>_x000D_
_x000D_
<body>_x000D_
  <div class="content">_x000D_
    <p id="orange">orange</p>_x000D_
    <p id="green">green</p>_x000D_
    <p class="red">red</p>_x000D_
    <p class="blue">blue</p>_x000D_
  </div>_x000D_
</body>_x000D_
_x000D_
</html>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


As far as I know this:

div[class=yourclass] table {  your style here; } 

or in your case even this:

div.yourclass table { your style here; }

(but this will work for elements with yourclass that might not be divs) will affect only tables inside yourclass. And, as Ken says, the > is not supported everywhere (and div[class=yourclass] too, so use the point notation for classes).