What does the "~" (tilde/squiggle/twiddle) CSS selector mean?
CssCss SelectorsCss Problem Overview
Searching for the ~
character isn't easy. I was looking over some CSS and found this
.check:checked ~ .content {
}
What does it mean?
Css Solutions
Solution 1 - Css
The ~
selector is in fact the subsequent-sibling combinator (previously called general sibling combinator until 2017):
> The subsequent-sibling combinator is made of the "tilde" (U+007E, ~) > character that separates two sequences of simple selectors. The > elements represented by the two sequences share the same parent in the > document tree and the element represented by the first sequence > precedes (not necessarily immediately) the element represented by the > second one.
Consider the following example:
.a ~ .b {
background-color: powderblue;
}
<ul>
<li class="b">1st</li>
<li class="a">2nd</li>
<li>3rd</li>
<li class="b">4th</li>
<li class="b">5th</li>
</ul>
.a ~ .b
matches the 4th and 5th list item because they:
- Are
.b
elements - Are siblings of
.a
- Appear after
.a
in HTML source order.
Likewise, .check:checked ~ .content
matches all .content
elements that are siblings of .check:checked
and appear after it.
Solution 2 - Css
Good to also check the other combinators in the family and to get back to what is this specific one.
ul li
ul > li
ul + ul
ul ~ ul
Example checklist:
ul li
- Looking inside - Selects all theli
elements placed (anywhere) inside theul
; Descendant combinatorul > li
- Looking inside - Selects only the directli
elements oful
; i.e. it will only select direct childrenli
oful
; Child combinatorul + ul
- Looking outside - Selects theul
immediately following theul
; It is not looking inside, but looking outside for the immediately following element; Adjacent sibling combinator / Next-sibling combinatorul ~ ul
- Looking outside - Selects all the followingul
's, but bothul
's should be having the same parent; General sibling combinator / Subsequent-sibling combinator
The one we are looking at here is the General sibling combinator / Subsequent-sibling combinator
Solution 3 - Css
General sibling combinator
> The general sibling combinator selector is very similar to the adjacent sibling combinator selector. The difference is that the element being selected doesn't need to immediately succeed the first element, but can appear anywhere after it.