CSS '>' selector; what is it?

Question

This question already has answers here:

Answer 1

> selects immediate children

For example, if you have nested divs like such:

<div class='outer'>
    <div class="middle">
        <div class="inner">...</div>
    </div>
    <div class="middle">
        <div class="inner">...</div>
    </div>
</div>

and you declare a css rule in your stylesheet like such:

.outer > div {
    ...
}

your rules will apply only to those divs that have a class of "middle" since those divs are direct descendants (immediate children) of elements with class "outer" (unless, of course, you declare other, more specific rules overriding these rules). See fiddle.

div {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 10px;
}
.outer > div {
  border: 1px solid orange;
}

<div class='outer'>
  div.outer - This is the parent.
  <div class="middle">
    div.middle - This is an immediate child of "outer". This will receive the orange border.
    <div class="inner">div.inner - This is an immediate child of "middle". This will not receive the orange border.</div>
  </div>
  <div class="middle">
    div.middle - This is an immediate child of "outer". This will receive the orange border.
    <div class="inner">div.inner - This is an immediate child of "middle". This will not receive the orange border.</div>
  </div>
</div>

<p>Without Words</p>

<div class='outer'>
  <div class="middle">
    <div class="inner">...</div>
  </div>
  <div class="middle">
    <div class="inner">...</div>
  </div>
</div>