How to hide first level span element by CSS ">" selector - html

Question

Here is my HTML code
.wrapper.mini-menu .sidebar-nav li > span{
display: none;
}
<div class="wrapper mini-menu">
<div class="header"></div>
<div class="sidebar">
<ul class="sidebar-nav">
<li>
<a href="#">
<i class="fa fa-home"></i>
<span>Hide Item1</span>
<i class="fa arrow pull-right"></i>
</a>
<ul class="sub-menu">
<li>
<a href="">
<i class="fa fa-user-plus"></i>
<span>Show Item 1</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="">
<i class="fa fa-user-plus"></i>
<span>Show Item 2</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#item1">
<i class="fa fa-dashboard"></i>
<span>Hide Item2</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#item1">
<i class="fa fa-cogs"></i>
<span>Hide Item3</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
I want to hide hide item1, hide item2 and hide item3. But I don't want to hide show items. If I don't use > selector it hides all span elements. How to select only those item by CSS > selector?

Answer 1

What your current CSS selector is saying is:
Hide all spans that are children of li that are descendants of .sidebar-nav. If you only want to target first level li elements do this instead:
.wrapper.mini-menu .sidebar-nav > li > a > span {
display: none;
}

Answer 2

Look:
.wrapper.mini-menu .sidebar-nav > li > a{
display: none;
}
<div class="wrapper mini-menu">
<div class="header"></div>
<div class="sidebar">
<ul class="sidebar-nav">
<li>
<a href="#">
<i class="fa fa-home"></i>
<span>Hide Item1</span>
<i class="fa arrow pull-right"></i>
</a>
<ul class="sub-menu">
<li>
<a href="">
<i class="fa fa-user-plus"></i>
<span>Show Item 1</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="">
<i class="fa fa-user-plus"></i>
<span>Show Item 2</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#item1">
<i class="fa fa-dashboard"></i>
<span>Hide Item2</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#item1">
<i class="fa fa-cogs"></i>
<span>Hide Item3</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 3

You select a span standing right after the .fa-user-plus icon with the + selector , but not so sure this what you look for ?
#import url("//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.1.0/css/font-awesome.min.css");
span {
display:none;
}
.fa.fa-user-plus + span{
display: inline-block;
}
<div class="wrapper mini-menu">
<div class="header"></div>
<div class="sidebar">
<ul class="sidebar-nav">
<li>
<a href="#">
<i class="fa fa-home"></i>
<span>Hide Item1</span>
<i class="fa arrow pull-right"></i>
</a>
<ul class="sub-menu">
<li>
<a href="">
<i class="fa fa-user-plus"></i>
<span>Show Item 1</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="">
<i class="fa fa-user-plus"></i>
<span>Show Item 2</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#item1">
<i class="fa fa-dashboard"></i>
<span>Hide Item2</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#item1">
<i class="fa fa-cogs"></i>
<span>Hide Item3</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>