CSS Selector Reference

CSS Selectors

In CSS, selectors are patterns used to select the element(s) you want to style.
The "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1, CSS2, or CSS3).

Selector	Example	Example description	CSS
.class	.intro	Selects all elements with class="intro"	1
#id	#firstname	Selects the element with id="firstname"	1
*	*	Selects all elements	2
element	p	Selects all <p> elements	1
element,element	div,p	Selects all <div> elements and all <p> elements	1
element element	div p	Selects all <p> elements inside <div> elements	1
element>element	div>p	Selects all <p> elements where the parent is a <div> element	2
element+element	div+p	Selects all <p> elements that are placed immediately after <div> elements	2
[attribute]	[target]	Selects all elements with a target attribute	2
[attribute=value]	[target=_blank]	Selects all elements with target="_blank"	2
[attribute~=value]	[title~=flower]	Selects all elements with a title attribute containing the word "flower"	2
[attribute|=language]	[lang|=en]	Selects all elements with a lang attribute value starting with "en"	2
:link	a:link	Selects all unvisited links	1
:visited	a:visited	Selects all visited links	1
:active	a:active	Selects the active link	1
:hover	a:hover	Selects links on mouse over	1
:focus	input:focus	Selects the input element which has focus	2
:first-letter	p:first-letter	Selects the first letter of every <p> element	1
:first-line	p:first-line	Selects the first line of every <p> element	1
:first-child	p:first-child	Selects every <p> elements that is the first child of its parent	2
:before	p:before	Insert content before every <p> element	2
:after	p:after	Insert content after every <p> element	2
:lang(language)	p:lang(it)	Selects every <p> element with a lang attribute value starting with "it"	2
element1~element2	p~ul	Selects every ul element that are preceded by a p element	3
[attribute^=value]	a[src^="https"]	Selects every a element whose src attribute value begins with "https"	3
[attribute$=value]	a[src$=".pdf"]	Selects every a element whose src attribute value ends with ".pdf"	3
[attribute*=value]	a[src*="w3schools"]	Selects every a element whose src attribute value contains the substring "w3schools"	3
:first-of-type	p:first-of-type	Selects every p element that is the first p element of its parent	3
:last-of-type	p:last-of-type	Selects every p element that is the last p element of its parent	3
:only-of-type	p:only-of-type	Selects every p element that is the only p element of its parent	3
:only-child	p:only-child	Selects every p element that is the only child of its parent	3
:nth-child(n)	p:nth-child(2)	Selects every p element that is the second child of its parent	3
:nth-last-child(n)	p:nth-last-child(2)	Selects every p element that is the second child of its parent, counting from the last child	3
:nth-of-type(n)	p:nth-of-type(2)	Selects every p element that is the second p element of its parent	3
:nth-last-of-type(n)	p:nth-last-of-type(2)	Selects every p element that is the second p element of its parent, counting from the last child	3
:last-child	p:last-child	Selects every p element that is the last child of its parent	3
:root	:root	Selects the document’s root element	3
:empty	p:empty	Selects every p element that has no children (including text nodes)	3
:target	#news:target	Selects the current active #news element (clicked on a URL containing that anchor name)	3
:enabled	input:enabled	Selects every enabled input element	3
:disabled	input:disabled	Selects every disabled input element	3
:checked	input:checked	Selects every checked input element	3
:not(selector)	:not(p)	Selects every element that is not a p element	3
::selection	::selection	Selects the portion of an element that is selected by a user	3