CSS nesting is a feature that allows you to nest one style rule inside another, making your CSS code more organized and easier to read. This feature is particularly useful when dealing with complex stylesheets, as it helps to maintain a clear hierarchy and reduces redundancy.
CSS nesting has its roots in the desire to make CSS more readable and maintainable, especially as stylesheets grow in complexity. The concept of nesting styles was first popularized by CSS preprocessors like Sass and Less, which allowed developers to nest their CSS rules in a way that mirrored the HTML structure.
This approach was so well-received that it eventually made its way into the official CSS specifications. The CSS Working Group has been working on standardizing CSS nesting, and modern browsers are beginning to support it natively.
Using an ampersand (&) in CSS nesting helps to reference the parent selector within nested rules. This is particularly useful for pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements, or when you want to create more specific selectors.
As of now, CSS nesting is supported by a significant portion of modern browsers. According to Can I use, the global usage of browsers that support CSS nesting is around 90.82%. Some browsers may require enabling experimental features or specific flags to use CSS nesting.
"what is css nesting" prompt. Copilot Chat, Microsoft, 04 Apr. 2025, m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
"what are the origins of css nesting" prompt. Copilot Chat, Microsoft, 04 Apr. 2025, m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
"how to use an ampersand when nesting css" prompt. Copilot Chat, Microsoft, 04 Apr. 2025, m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
"what does browser support look like for css nesting using information from caniuse.com" prompt. Copilot Chat, Microsoft, 04 Apr. 2025, m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
A use of css nesting on this page is a link within a list element, while in a card. Rather than needing several CSS selectors to specify the link while not hovered and while hovered, I used CSS nesting, more specifically, &:hover, to add additional styling while hovering over a link.
This link uses CSS Nesting for the hover stateAccording to MDN web docs, the ampersand is used to explicitly let the browser know that the nested child rule is relative to the parent element. Without the ampersand, the child rule selector will select the child elements specified. This means that depending on the use of the ampersand, it allows the child rule to potentially target the parent and/or child elements.
MDN Web Docs: CSS NestingCSS nesting can be used fairly extensively in any project, but sees a lot of usage in relation to pseudo-classes, such as 'hover' and 'visited'. CSS nesting can also be useful for nested page structure, as a baseline CSS class can be used and have other subclasses and elements within the class nested inside the parent CSS rule.