---
id: howto-css-button-split
title: "How To - Split Buttons"
category: "Web_Recipes"
status: "draft"
verification_status: "conceptual"
canonical_id: ""
aliases: ["split button dropdown CSS"]
duplicate_of: ""
source_trust_level: "B"
confidence_score: 0.82
created_at: 2026-07-04
updated_at: 2026-07-04
review_reason: ""
merge_history: []
tags: ["howto", "css", "w3schools", "buttons", "dropdown"]
raw_sources: ["https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_css_button_split.asp"]
applied_in: []
github_commit: ""
---

# [[HOWTO CSS Button Split]]

## 🎯 한 줄 통찰 (One-line insight)
A "split button" is really just a dropdown menu (`.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content { display: block; }`) whose TRIGGER happens to be a second small button with a caret icon sitting immediately next to a normal action button — the dropdown-reveal mechanism itself (hidden content shown on `:hover`, positioned `absolute` inside a `relative`/`inline-block` wrapper) is identical to any other CSS-only dropdown; the only distinguishing feature is the visual split between "primary action" (left button) and "reveal more options" (right arrow button). [S1]

## 🧠 핵심 개념 (Core concepts)
- **Font Awesome icon library** — loaded via a `<link>` to a CDN stylesheet, providing the caret-down icon (`fa fa-caret-down`) used as the dropdown trigger. [S1]
- **`.dropdown { position: absolute; display: inline-block; }`** — wraps the caret button and the dropdown content together as a positioning anchor. [S1]
- **`.dropdown-content { display: none; position: absolute; }`** — the hidden menu, absolutely positioned relative to `.dropdown`. [S1]
- **`.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content { display: block; }`** — the reveal mechanism: hovering the wrapper (which contains the caret button) shows the menu — a pure CSS `:hover` toggle, no JavaScript. [S1]
- **Shared hover state across both buttons** — `.btn:hover, .dropdown:hover .btn { background-color: #0b7dda; }` keeps the main button's color in sync when the dropdown is open, even though the dropdown itself is only hovered via the caret button. [S1]

## 📖 세부 내용 (Details)
- HTML: `<button class="btn">Button</button> <div class="dropdown"> <button class="btn" style="border-left:1px solid navy"><i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i></button> <div class="dropdown-content"><a href="#">Link 1</a>...</div></div>`. [S1]
- CSS reveal: `.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content { display: block; }`. [S1]

## ⚖️ 모순 및 업데이트 (Contradictions & updates)
없음 — 신규 레시피, 기존 문서와 모순되는 내용 없음.

## 🛠️ 적용 사례 (Applied in summary)
"Button" 옆에 캐럿 아이콘 버튼을 붙여 마우스를 올리면 Link 1/2/3 드롭다운이 나타나는 예제가 원문에서 직접 제시됨. [S1]

## 💻 코드 패턴 (Code patterns)
Pure-CSS hover dropdown attached to a caret button (CSS):
```css
.dropdown { position: absolute; display: inline-block; }
.dropdown-content { display: none; position: absolute; }
.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content { display: block; }
```

## ✅ 검증 상태 및 신뢰도
- **상태:** draft
- **검증 단계:** conceptual
- **출처 신뢰도:** B (W3Schools — widely used educational reference)
- **신뢰 점수:** 0.82
- **중복 검사 결과:** 신규 생성 (New discovery)

## 🔗 지식 그래프 (Knowledge Graph)
- **상위/루트:** [[W3Schools HOW TO]]
- **관련 개념:** [[HOWTO CSS Dropdown]], [[HOWTO CSS Dropdown Navbar]], [[HOWTO CSS Button Group]]
- **참조 맥락:** CSS Buttons 섹션.

## 📚 출처 (Sources)
- [S1] W3Schools — How To - Split Buttons — https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_css_button_split.asp

## 📝 변경 이력 (Change history)
- 2026-07-04: Initial draft synthesized from the W3Schools "How To - Split Buttons" recipe (Astra wiki-curation, P-Reinforce v3.1 format).