Compound and complex sentences

Compound sentences contain two or more pieces of

information and the pieces are linked by connectives.
Examples:
The boy walked down the road and his parents waved
from the house.
The dog came rushing in so the cat ran upstairs.
My friend gave me a lift because it was raining.

A complex sentence has one independent clause and

at least one dependent clause.
Examples:
The car swerved to miss Mrs Jackson, who had slipped
off the pavement.
I went shopping yesterday, despite it raining heavily.