Mastering Attribute Selectors in CSS

Posted on:April 12, 2023 at 11:00 AM

Introduction to Attribute Selectors in CSS

When styling a webpage with CSS, there are times when you need to select an element based on one of its attributes. This is where attribute selectors come in handy. With attribute selectors, you can select and apply styles to elements based on their attribute values.

Types of Attribute Selectors

There are several types of attribute selectors available in CSS. The most common ones are:

  1. [attribute] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute, regardless of its value.
  2. [attribute=value] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute and value.
  3. [attribute~=value] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute and a value that contains the given word.
  4. [attribute|=value] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute and a value that starts with the given word, followed by a hyphen.
  5. [attribute^=value] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute and a value that starts with the given string.
  6. [attribute$=value] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute and a value that ends with the given string.
  7. [attribute*=value] - Selects all elements with the specified attribute and a value that contains the given string.

Using Attribute Selectors

Attribute selectors can be used to apply styles to elements based on their attribute values. For example, if you have a link with the attribute “href” and you want to apply a specific style to it, you can use the [href] attribute selector like this:

a[href] {
  color: blue;
}

This will select all links on the page that have the “href” attribute and apply a blue color to them.

Similarly, if you want to select all links that have a specific attribute value, you can use the [attribute=value] selector like this:

a[href="https://example.com"]
{
  color: red;
}

This will select all links on the page that have an “href” attribute with the value ”https://example.com” and apply a red color to them.

Conclusion

Attribute selectors are a powerful tool in CSS that allow you to select and apply styles to elements based on their attribute values. By using attribute selectors, you can make your webpages more dynamic and visually appealing.

What’s next?

In the coming articles, we will be covering more complex selectors in CSS. Don’t forget to follow and share this with your friends that are just starting their web development journey