Child Selector vs. Descendant Selector: When Does the Child Selector Fail?

Child Selector vs. Descendant Selector in CSS

In CSS, the child selector (>) represents a parent-child relationship, while the descendant selector (> with a space) targets any descendant element within the parent. While both selectors can be used to select specific elements, there are certain limitations to their usage.

In the example given, selecting table tr td retrieves the td elements correctly because td is an immediate child of tr, and tr is an immediate child of table. However, when using table > tr > td to target the same elements, the selector fails.

This behavior stems from the HTML structure generated by browsers in response to certain elements. browsers automatically add an implicit tbody element within table elements to enclose tr elements. This means that in the parent-child relationship, tr is not directly nested within table; instead, it is within the tbody element.

Consequently, to select the td elements as intended, you must use the following selector that accounts for the implicit tbody element:

table > tbody > tr > td

By including tbody in the selector, you traverse the proper parent-child relationships and accurately target the td elements.

Thus, in this scenario, the child selector cannot correctly select the desired elements because of the implicit tbody element added by browsers, while the descendant selector works as expected.

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