CSS Attribute Selectors: A Comprehensive Guide

Learn how to effectively use CSS attribute selectors in this informative blog post.

If you’re new to CSS selectors, I recommend checking out my previous blog post on an introduction to the basic CSS Selectors. There, I cover various fundamental selectors such as type selectors, class selectors, and ID selectors, as well as techniques like combining selectors, targeting multiple classes, styling multiple selectors in one rule, following the page hierarchy with child and direct child selectors, and selecting adjacent siblings.

Attribute Presence Selectors

The first type of selector we will explore is the attribute presence selector. By using the [] syntax, you can check if an element has a specific attribute. For example, p[id] will select all p tags on the page that have an id attribute, regardless of its value.

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p[id] {
    /* CSS rules here */
}

Exact Attribute Value Selectors

If you want to apply CSS styles only to elements with an attribute that matches an exact value, you can use the = operator within the brackets. This selector will only select elements where the attribute value matches the specified value exactly.

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p[id="my-id"] {
    /* CSS rules here */
}

Matching Attribute Value Portions

CSS attribute selectors offer various operators to check for attribute value portions:

*= checks if the attribute contains the specified partial value
^= checks if the attribute starts with the specified partial value
$= checks if the attribute ends with the specified partial value
|= checks if the attribute starts with the specified partial value and is followed by a dash (commonly used in classes)
~= checks if the specified partial value is contained in the attribute, separated by spaces from the rest

Please note that all these checks are case sensitive by default. However, if you add an i just before the closing bracket, the check will become case insensitive. Please keep in mind that case insensitivity is supported in many browsers, but not all. For compatibility, you can check https://caniuse.com/#feat=css-case-insensitive.

Remember, using attribute selectors can greatly enhance your CSS styling capabilities and provide more flexibility when targeting specific elements. Start incorporating them into your web development workflow today!

Tags: CSS, attribute selectors, web development, CSS styling