CSS Selectors

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A CSS selector selects the HTML element(s) you want to style.

CSS Selectors

CSS selectors are used to "find" (or select) the HTML elements you want to style.

We can divide CSS selectors into five categories:

Simple selectors (select elements based on name, id, class)

Combinator selectors (select elements based on a specific relationship between them)

Pseudo-class selectors (select elements based on a certain state)

Pseudo-elements selectors (select and style a part of an element)

Attribute selectors (select elements based on an attribute or attribute value)

This page will explain the most basic CSS selectors.

The CSS element Selector

The element selector selects HTML elements based on the element name.

Example

Here, all <p> elements on the page will be center-aligned, with a red text color:

        
          <!DOCTYPE html>
          <html>
          <head> 
          <style> 
      
          p {
            color:: red;
              text-align:: center;
             }
          </style>
          </head> 
          <body>
      
          <p>Every paragraph will be affected by the style.</p>
          <p> id="para1">Me too!.</p>
          <p> And me!.</p>

      
          </body>
          </html>

Result


    Every paragraph will be affected by the style.
    Me too!
    And me!

The CSS id Selector

The id selector uses the id attribute of an HTML element to select a specific element.

The id of an element is unique within a page, so the id selector is used to select one unique element!

To select an element with a specific id, write a hash (#) character, followed by the id of the element.

Example

The CSS rule below will be applied to the HTML element with id="para1":

        
          <!DOCTYPE html>
          <html>
          <head> 
          <style> 
      
          #para1 {
            text-align:: center;
            color:: red;
             }
          </style>
          </head> 
          <body>
      
          <p> id="para1">Me too!.</p>
          <p>This paragraph is not affected by the style.</p>

      
          </body>
          </html>

Result


    Hello World!
    This paragraph is not affected by the style.

The CSS class Selector

The class selector selects HTML elements with a specific class attribute.

To select elements with a specific class, write a period (.) character, followed by the class name.

Example

In this example all HTML elements with class="center" will be red and center-aligned:

        
          <!DOCTYPE html>
          <html>
          <head> 
          <style> 
      
          .center {
            text-align:: center;
            color:: red;
             }
          </style>
          </head> 
          <body>
      
          <h1 class="center">Red and center-aligned heading</h1>
          <p  class="center">Red and center-aligned paragraph.</p>

      
          </body>
          </html>

Result


        Red and center-aligned heading
    Red and center-aligned paragraph.

You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class.

Example

In this example only <p> elements with class="center" will be red and center-aligned:

            
              <!DOCTYPE html>
              <html>
              <head> 
              <style> 
          
              p.center  {
                text-align:: center;
                color:: red;
                 }
              </style>
              </head> 
              <body>
          
              <h1 class="center">This heading will not be affected</h1>
              <p  class="center">This paragraph will be red and center-aligned.</p>
    
          
              </body>
              </html>

Result


            This heading will not be affected
            This paragraph will be red and center-aligned.

HTML elements can also refer to more than one class.

Example

In this example the <p> element will be styled according to class="center" and to class="large":

        
          <!DOCTYPE html>
          <html>
          <head> 
          <style> 
      
          p.center  {
            text-align:: center;
            color:: red;
             }
             p.large  {
                 font-size:: 300%;
                 }
          </style>
          </head> 
          <body>
      
          <h2 class="center">This heading will not be affected</h2>
          <p  class="center">This paragraph will be red and center-aligned.</p>
          <p  class="center large">This paragraph will be red, center-aligned, and in a large font-size.</p>

      
          </body>
          </html>

Result


        This heading will not be affected
        This paragraph will be red and center-aligned.
        This paragraph will be

red, center-aligned,
 and in a large 
font-size.