.gitignore exclude folder but include specific subfolder

Question

I have the folder application/ which I add to the .gitignore. Inside the application/ folder is the folder application/language

Answer 1

my JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA .gitignore configuration, where I need exclude wholde .idea folder except .idea/runConfigurations:

.idea
!.idea/
.idea/*
!.idea/runConfigurations/

see: https://github.com/daggerok/gitignore-idea-runConfigurations