CSS Selectors

Selectors define to which elements a set of CSS rules apply.

Basic Selectors

Type selectors

This basic selector chooses all elements that matches the given name.
Syntax: eltname
Example: input will match any <input> element.

Class selectors

This basic selector chooses elements based on the value of their class attribute.
Syntax: .classname
Example: .index will match any element that has the class index (likely defined by a class="index" attribute or similar).

ID selectors

This basic selector chooses nodes based on the value of its id attribute. There should be only one element with a given ID in a document.
Syntax: #idname
Example: #toc will match the element that has the id toc (likely defined by a id="toc" attribute or similar).

Universal selectors

This basic selector chooses all nodes. It also exists in a one-namespace only and in an all-namespace variant too.
Syntax: * ns|* *|*
Example: * will match all the elements of the document.

Attribute selectors

This basic selector chooses nodes based on the value of one of its attributes.
Syntax: [attr] [attr=value] [attr~=value] [attr|=value] [attr^=value] [attr$=value] [attr*=value]
Example: [autoplay] will match all the elements that have the autoplay attribute set (to any value).

Combinators

Adjacent sibling selectors

The '+' combinator selects nodes that immediately follow the former specified element.
Syntax: A + B
Example: ul + li will match any <li> that immediately follows a <ul>.

General sibling selectors

The '~' combinator selects nodes that follow (not necessarily immediately) the former specified element, if both elements shared the same parent.
Syntax: A ~ B
Example: p ~ span will match all <span> elements that follow a <p> element inside the same element.

Child selectors

The '>' combinator selects nodes that are direct children of the former specified element.
Syntax: A > B
Example: ul > li will match all <li> elements that are inside a <ul> element.

Descendant selectors

The ' ' combinator selects nodes that are children (not necessary direct children) of the former specified element.
Syntax: A B
Example: div span will match any <span> element that is inside a <div> element.

Pseudo-elements

Pseudo-elements are abstractions of the tree representing entities beyond what HTML does. For example, HTML doesn't have an element describing the first letter or line of a paragraph, or the marker of a list. Pseudo-elements represent these entities and allow CSS rules to be associated with them. that way, these entitities can be styled independently.

Pseudo-classes

Pseudo-classes allow to select elements based on information that is not contained in the document tree like a state or that is particularly complex to extract. E.g. they match if a link has been previously visited or not.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Selectors Level 4	Working Draft
Selectors Level 3	Recommendation
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)	Recommendation
CSS Level 1	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility