General sibling combinator

This example shows the use of the ~ combinator when both the selectors are simple selectors (p and span).

<article>
  <span>This is not red because it appears before any paragraph.</span>
  <p>Here is a paragraph.</p>
  <code>Here is some code.</code>
  <span>
    This span is red because it appears after the paragraph, even though there
    are other nodes in between.
  </span>
  <p>Whatever it may be, keep smiling.</p>
  <h1>Dream big</h1>
  <span>
    Doesn't matter how many or what kind of nodes are in between, all spans from
    the same parent after a paragraph are red.
  </span>
</article>
<span>
  This span is not red because it doesn't share a parent with a paragraph.
</span>

p ~ span {
  color: red;
}

This example contains two complex selectors, both using the general sibling combinator: .foo p ~ span and .foo p ~ .foo span.

• The first complex selector, .foo p ~ span, matches all spans that come after a paragraph if the span and paragraph share the same parent and that parent or an ancestor of that parent has the class .foo.
• The second complex selector, .foo p ~ .foo span, matches all spans that are a descendant of the element with class .foo if that element is a sibling of the previously mentioned paragraph.

The example below shows that the target element in the complex selector must share the same parent as the initial element in the complex selector.

<h1>Dream big</h1>
<span>And yet again this is a red span!</span>
<div class="foo">
  <p>Here is another paragraph.</p>
  <span>A blue span</span>
  <div class="foo">
    <span>A green span</span>
  </div>
</div>

.foo p ~ span {
  color: blue;
}

.foo p ~ .foo span {
  color: green;
}

In the above HTML, the two siblings of .foo p are span and .foo. The green span is a descendant of the .foo class, which is a sibling of p.

• When the target selector is span, the span element that is a sibling of p is selected. The p element is a descendant of .foo, so are its span siblings.
• In .foo p ~ .foo span, the target selector is span that is a descendant of .foo. In this case, the span element that's a descendent of .foo is selected if that .foo is a sibling of p; essentially, both are nested in an ancestor of .foo.

• Adjacent sibling combinator