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All CSS properties have 3 basic values in common: inherit, initial and unset. Inherit and initial have been around for a long time, but unset is a new addition. What the values will do can at times get confusing, so here’s a breakdown:
Here’s an example to make is clear. Here’s our markup:
<div class="wrapper">
<p class="one">Snake<p>
<p class="two">Lizard<p>
<p class="three">Alligator</p>
<p>Komodo Dragon</p>
</div>
And here’s our CSS:
.wrapper { color: orange; }
.wrapper p { color: purple; }
p.one { color: inherit; }
p.two { color: initial; }
p.three { color: unset; }
👉 A neat trick with unset is when combined with the all shorthand, which automatically affects all properties of a selector. The following unsets every properties of the selected p elements:
article p {
all: unset;
}
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I always see these values in editor’s auto-suggestion but never understood what they meant and also I never had to use them. But this is enlightening to know that they have a meaningful function. 👏🏻