What is ‘!important’?

The !important rule in CSS is used to make a specific CSS property or value override any other styling rules applied to the same property. When !important is added to a CSS declaration, it increases its priority, making it the most important rule for that property on the targeted element. This means that even if there are other conflicting styles with higher specificity, the !important rule will take precedence

Syntax:

Important Aspects of !important

1.Overriding Styles:

The !important rule ensures that the CSS declaration with !important will override all other declarations for that property on the same element, regardless of specificity or source order.

2. Specificity and !important:

Even though !important overrides normal specificity rules, if multiple !important declarations are applied to the same property, the rule with the highest specificity or the one that appears last in the CSS will take precedence.

3. Challenges with Debugging:

Using !important can make CSS harder to maintain and debug because it breaks the normal cascading and specificity rules. It can lead to unexpected behavior and make it difficult to trace where and why a particular style is being applied.

4. Best Practices:

While !important can be useful for specific scenarios, it is generally advised to use it sparingly. Relying on !important can make your CSS less predictable and harder to manage in the long run. Instead, focus on using proper specificity and structure in your CSS to achieve the desired styling.

Example Usage:

Basic Example:

In this example, all <p> elements will have a blue text color, regardless of any other conflicting styles applied to them.

Conflict Resolution Example:

In this example, the background-color of <button> elements will be blue due to the !important rule, overriding the previous red background color.

Specificity and !important:

Here, the background-color of #special-button will be yellow, as the !important rule overrides the green background color, even though the green color rule has the same specificity.