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CSS CSS Basics (2014) Basic Selectors Descendant Selectors

Posted by Liam Clarke
Liam Clarke
19,938 Points

classes, IDs etc

So far classes and IDs seem to be getting used for almost everything, is this common? or would this in turn slow down the performance when a site increases in size?

1 Answer

Austin Whipple
Austin Whipple
29,725 Points
Austin Whipple
Austin Whipple
29,725 Points

I think you'd have to add a ridiculous number of IDs and classes to increase the data size enough to slow down a site. HTML is pretty lightweight overall, so normal usage of IDs and classes (even adding a few classes to most elements on a page) shouldn't negatively impact performance.

Some important things of note here: First, HTML 5 has added a lot of semantic elements such as header, footer, article, etc., so some need for class names has been reduced (using header instead of <div class="header"> for instance). Second, IDs should be unique on the page and are often reserved for functionality more than design. If you have multiple elements on a single page with the same ID, your HTML is no longer valid.