The Grouping Selector

So far, we've focused on styling one element or one type of element at a time. But what if you have ten different elements that all need the exact same style?

The Grouping Selector provides the perfect solution. It allows you to combine multiple selectors into a single ruleset, drastically reducing code duplication and making your CSS much cleaner.

How to Use the Grouping Selector

To group selectors, you simply list them one after another, separated by a comma (,).

The Syntax

Grouping Selector Syntax

selector-1, selector-2, selector-3, ... {
  /* declarations go here */
}

Examples

You can group any combination of simple selectors:

Grouping Example	Targets
h1, h2, h3	All level 1, 2, and 3 headings.
.card, .modal, .toast	All elements with the classes card, modal, or toast.
p, #footer, .note	All paragraphs, the unique element with id="footer", and all elements with the class note.

Grouping in Action

Instead of writing this verbose, repetitive code:

Repetitive Code

h1 {
  font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif;
  color: #333;
}
h2 {
  font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif;
  color: #333;
}
.sidebar-title {
  font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif;
  color: #333;
}

Grouped Code

/* Grouping all three selectors together */
h1, h2, .sidebar-title {
  font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif;
  color: #333;
}

The grouped code achieves the exact same result using just one ruleset!

Why Grouping is a Best Practice

1. Reduced Code Size (Efficiency): It minimizes the total number of lines in your stylesheet, which makes the file size smaller and faster to download.
2. Maintainability: If you need to update the shared styles (e.g., change the font-family), you only have one place to make the edit.
3. Readability: It makes the intent of your CSS clear—you are explicitly stating that these distinct elements are meant to look alike.

Note on Specificity

When selectors are grouped, the browser calculates the Specificity Score for each individual selector separately.

Example: If you have the rule: .box, #unique-title { color: purple; }

• When styling the element with the class .box, the specificity is 10.
• When styling the element with the ID #unique-title, the specificity is 100.

The Grouping Selector does not change the individual power of the selectors it contains.

Interactive Grouping Selector Demo

In the live editor, the CSS uses the grouping selector to target a Class, an Element, and a unique ID all at once. If you remove any selector from the comma-separated list, the corresponding element will lose the styling.