CSS: span.test or .test?

Is there any difference in:

#example .test{margin-top:10px}

And

#example span.test{margin-top:10px}
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.test is totally unique, no any class with that name exists. I have been trying to use like

<div id="example">
    <label for="name">Name</label>
    <input name="name" type="text" />
    <span class="test">asdfghjkl</span>
</div>

The first css won't work, while the second works fine. Just wondering why first wont work? Thanks

Edit: I found out that in the input field (in above example), i had put float:left;, which was causing the problem. If anyone is interested, here you can see example. If you remove float:left;, it will work fine. http://jsfiddle.net/CmXrX/1/

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Yes, there is a difference. That difference is in specificity. If you have conflicting CSS rules -- two rules point to the same element but certain properties conflict -- the conflict will be sorted out by the rules about specificity.

Each type of selector has a certain number of "specificity points" For instance:

Selector type          Points
-----------------------------
HTML selector          1
class selector         10
id selector            100

So if you had these two rules:

#example .test{margin-top:10px}
#example span.test{margin-top:20px}

the top margin would be 20px, because the second rule has a specificity of 111 (100 + 10 + 1) whereas the first has 110 (100 + 10).

My guess, therefore, is that you have a conflicting style somewhere that has 111 specificity.

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There are two differences:

1. The latter will only apply, if the class test is applied to a span and no other element.
2. (and most likly more relevant in your case) the latter has a higher specificity than the former.

You probably have an other rule with a higher specificity then the first selector but lower than the second. That means this other rule will override the first rule, but not the second.

---

I found out that in the input field (in above example), i had put float:left;, which was causing the problem. If anyone is interested, here you can see example. If you remove float:left;, it will work fine. http://jsfiddle.net/CmXrX/1/

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yes there is a difference :

<div id="example">
    <label for="name">Name</label>
    <input name="name" type="text" />
    <span><div  class="test">asdfghjkl</div></span>
</div>