Selectors and combinators

This section contains a list of selectors available for cascading style sheets.

Selectors

• Class selector   Matches the class property of the specified element.

• Equality attribute selector   Exactly matches the specified property value.

• Existence attribute selector   Matches the property, whatever its value.

• Hyphen attribute selector   Matches any property value that is exactly equal or, optionally, is followed by a hyphen.

• ID selector   Matches the class property of the specified element.

• Prefix attribute selector   Matches the specified prefix of a property value.

• Substring attribute selector   Matches the specified substring of a property value.

• Suffix attribute selector   Matches the specified suffix of a property value.

• Type selector   Matches any element of the specified type.

• Universal selector   Matches any element type.

• Whitespace attribute selector   Exactly matches the specified property value in a space-delimited list of values.

Pseudo-classes

• :active   Sets the style of an A element when the link is engaged or active.

• ::after Defines generated content that appears after an element.

• ::before Defines generated content that appears before an element.

• :checked Applies one or more styles to the form control element that is selected.

• :disabled Applies one or more styles to the form control element that is disabled.

• :empty Applies one or more styles to the element that has no child elements (including text nodes).

• :first-child   Applies one or more styles to any element that is the first child of its parent.

• :first-of-type Applies one or more styles to the element that is the first sibling element of its type.

• :focus Sets the style of an element when it gains focus.

• :hover   Sets the style of an element when the user rests the pointer on the element.

• :indeterminate Applies one or more styles to radio buttons and check boxes whose toggle states cannot be determined

• :lang In a document, selects the elements that are in a given language.

• :last-child Applies one or more styles to the element that is the last child element of its parent element.

• :link   Sets the style of an A element when the link has not been visited recently.

• :not Applies one or more styles to elements that do not match the simple selector.

• :nth-child Applies one or more styles to the element that is the nth child of its parent element.

• :nth-last-child Applies one or more styles to the element that is the nth child of its parent element, counting from the last one.

• :nth-last-of-type Applies one or more styles to the element that is the nth sibling of its type, counting from the last one.

• :nth-of-type Applies one or more styles to the element that is the nth sibling of its type.

• :only-child Applies one or more styles to the element that is the last sibling element of its type.

• :only-of-type Applies one or more styles to the element that is the only sibling element of its type.

• :root Applies one or more styles to the element that is the root element of the document.

• :target Applies one or more styles to the target element of of the referring Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

• :visited   Sets the style of an A element when the link has been visited recently.

Pseudo-elements

• ::after Defines generated content that appears after an element.

• ::before Defines generated content that appears before an element.

• :first-letter Pseudo-element   Applies one or more styles to the first letter of the object.

• :first-line Pseudo-element   Applies one or more styles to the first line of the object.

• ::selection Applies one or more styles to any text on the page that the user has highlighted.

Combinators

• Adjacent sibling   Specifies an adjacent sibling relationship between selector elements.

• Child   Specifies a direct descendant relationship between selector elements.

• Descendant   Specifies a relationship between an ancestor selector element and a descendent element (child, grandchild, great-grandchild, and so on).

• General sibling   Specifies a general sibling relationship between selector elements.

See also

Concepts

Cascading style sheet reference
Understanding selectors
Properties by category

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