What does `a > b` mean?

Question

I\'m reading a tutorial about creating a shoutbox with jquery, php and ajax. In the jquery code, it creates a variable like this

var messageList = $(\".content &         


        

Answer 1

It indicates the shoutbox should be applied to a "ul" thats the immediate child of ".content". Without the ">" symbol, it applies to any ul thats a child of .content

Answer 2

It's a child selector.

Answer 3

css child selector

Answer 4

It searches for a ul that's the direct child of .content, so if you'd change the html to

<div class="content">
   <div>
      <ul></ul>
   </div>
</div>

your selector wouldn't return anything. There's more info on all kinds of selectors on http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/