CSS nesting and grouping
CSS Nesting and Grouping
In web design, it’s important for developers to write concise and precise code that’s easy to run. Lengthy code is always a disadvantage for developers because it increases web page loading time, making the website less readable. Additionally, debugging the code can be a difficult task for developers.
CSS provides facilities such as nesting and grouping that enable developers to write precise code. This helps keep the code specific and readable. Additionally, because the code is shorter, runtime and page load times are reduced, which in turn draws the user’s attention. This increases the readability of your website. In this article, we’ll discuss the concepts of nesting and grouping in CSS.
Nesting in CSS
The nesting property in CSS enables developers to nest a specific style rule within another rule, with the child rule’s selector being relative to the parent rule’s selector.
Grammar
class1_selector class2_selector id_selector{
CSS declarations;
}
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Nesting in CSS</title>
<style>
*{
text-align: center;
}
h1{
color: #00FF00;
text-decoration: underline;
}
p span{
color: blue;
font-size: 18px;
letter-spacing: 1px;
font-weight: bold;
font-family: cursive;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Tutorialspoint</h1>
<h2>Computer Programming</h2>
<p>The process of carrying out a given computation (or, more broadly, achieving a specified computing result) through the design and construction of an executable computer program is known as computer programming. Analysis, algorithm generation, resource use profiling, and algorithm implementation are some of the duties involved in programming (usually in a chosen programming language, commonly referred to as coding). <span> Instead of Being written in machine code, which is immediately executed by the CPU, a program is written in one or more languages that are understandable to programmers. </span> Finding a set of instructions that will automate the completion of a task—which may be as complicated as an operating system—on a computer is the goal of programming, which is frequently done to address a specific issue.</p>
</body>
</html>
Benefits of Nesting in CSS
The following are the main advantages of nesting
- Nesting helps create more modular and maintainable stylesheets. Instead of using the same selector in multiple places throughout a stylesheet, you can centralize all styles related to that selector in one place. This significantly reduces development and debugging time. For example, if you design an organized CSS module, you can simply assign properties to selectable items within other selectors, rather than assigning different selectors to each HTML element, such as using various class or ID selectors.
-
It allows for nested media queries. Nesting eliminates the need for a separate media query rule for each selector. This can be added immediately where the selector is declared.
-
When CSS properties are nested within HTML components, a tree-like structure is created. Using nested methods, CSS rules can be quickly created for a large number of selectors for a single property. Instead of duplicating the same set of features for each selector, we can simply stack selectors within other selectors. This reduces both the amount of code and overall load time.
Grouping in CSS
To select and style many elements simultaneously, you can use CSS grouped selectors. This reduces the amount of code and effort required to create standard styles for each element. To group them, use a space between each selector.
Grammar
selector1, selector2, selector3...selectorN {
CSS declarations;
}
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title> Grouping in CSS </title>
<style>
*{
text-align: center;
}
h1{
color: #00FF00;
text-decoration: underline;
}
h2{
color: red;
}
h1, h2{
font-family: Times New Roman, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 1px;
font-weight: 900;
}
h2, p{
margin: 5px;
padding: 10px 5px 10px 10px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Tutorialspoint</h1>
<h2>Computer Programming</h2>
<p>The process of carrying out a given computation (or, more broadly, achieving a specified computing result) through the design and construction of an executable computer program is known as computer programming. Analysis, algorithm generation, resource use profiling, and algorithm implementation are some of the duties involved in programming (usually in a chosen programming language, commonly referred to as coding). Instead of being written in machine code, which is immediately executed by the CPU, a program is written in one or more languages that are understandable to programmers. Finding a set of instructions that will automate the completion of a task—which may be as complicated as an operating system—on a computer is the goal of programming, which is frequently done to address a specific issue. </p>
</body>
</html>
Benefits of Grouping in CSS
Following are the advantages of grouping in CSS
- It helps shorten code that contains many selectors with the same characteristics. This makes the code easier to read. When grouping is used, both page load time and code development time are reduced.
-
If there’s a mistake in the code, you can easily make a change in one selector and have it apply to all grouped selectors.
Differences between Nesting and Grouping
| Nested | Grouped |
|---|---|
| Nesting allows you to nest one style rule within another, with the child rule’s selectors related to the parent rule’s selectors. | Grouping allows several selectors to be assigned the same properties and values simultaneously. |
| Nesting is a technique for managing and simplifying properties for many items simultaneously. However, it can become cumbersome if more elements are nested with the same value. Controlling such nested features can be difficult. | Using groups makes applying properties to several different components at once straightforward and manageable. |
| If we need to edit a property in CSS for a specific element (such as a parent or child), we must manually edit that element in the nested case. | With grouping, we simply modify the style of one selector, and it will be applied to all other grouped selectors. |
Summary
While you can always list your CSS styles individually, remember that grouping saves space and keeps selectors separate. Grouping is how things stay organized. Nesting helps with modularity and maintainability of your stylesheets. This is because nesting allows all selector-related styles, child/parent selectors, and even media queries to be nested in the same place.