How to Efficiently Target Descendants in CSS: Is There a Better Way Than Individual Listing?

The Elusive Grouping of Descendants in CSS

In the world of HTML and CSS, styling elements is often a task that requires precision and efficiency. However, when it comes to styling a group of descendants, the lack of a straightforward syntax can be a source of frustration.

Consider the following scenario: you have an HTML table with multiple columns and rows, and you want to assign the same styles to all the column headings (th) and table cells (td). Why can't you simply use a selector like #myTable (th,td) to achieve this?

The answer lies in CSS syntax itself. Until recently, CSS did not provide an explicit way to group descendants in a selector. Instead, it required you to list each descendant explicitly, as in #myTable th, #myTable td.

However, the desire for a more concise and efficient way to group descendants has led to recent proposals and implementations of pseudo-classes. Mozilla introduced :-moz-any() in 2010, followed by WebKit's :-webkit-any(). While these prefixed pseudo-classes can provide the desired grouping functionality, their use is limited due to the need for vendor-specific code and potential duplication of rulesets.

The latest effort to address this issue is the proposed :matches() pseudo-class in the Selectors level 4 working draft. This new pseudo-class offers improvements over the :any() proposal and may provide a standardized solution for grouping descendants. However, support for :matches() is still limited.

In the meantime, if styling both th and td elements is your aim, you can use #myTable tr > * assuming there are no additional child elements within the table rows. This alternative eliminates the need to list descendants individually, providing a more efficient and readable approach.

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