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CSS Selectors 101: The Web Stylist

The Web Stylist -- CSS for Benninger

Updated
4 min read
CSS Selectors 101: The Web Stylist
M
Backend-focused developer learning. I write about internal workings, fundamentals, and real project learnings. Sharing my journey, insights, and mistakes while building in public.

Why CSS selectors are needed

In this article, you will know about the CSS Selectors, how HTML element are selected from HTML file and give style to them. So let started.

The above clip, explain virtually, what CSS do, if the video does not work [Click me] . CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet . There are different way to write CSS, which are:-

  • Inline CSS
<p style:"color: red;">Hello, this is inline CSS styling.</p>
  • Internal CSS
<head>
    <style>
        p{
            color: blue;
            background-color: yellow;
        }
    </style>
</head>
  • External CSS
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css";

Type's of CSS Selector

Let's talk about how we can select & style HTML elements via CSS :

Their are different types of CSS selector and different ways to select CSS elements:

  • Universal Selector

  • Individual Selector

  • Class Selector

  • Id Selector

  • Chained Selector


Universal Selector

The Universal Selector is a CSS selector, that select every element that is present in the CSS file and gives styling to every element.

Syntax:

*{
    property: value;
 }

Example

index.html

<section>
  <h1><u>Universal Selector: </u></h1>
  
  <p>This is a example of Universal Selector.</p>
  
  <p>
    You can see, this HTML code contains muliple HTML tags like h1, and 2 p tags. With just one CSS selector <b>--[ * ]--</b>.
  </p>
 
  <hr>
</section>

style.css

*{
  background-color: black;
  color: #ffff;
 }

Output Screen:


Individual Selector

It gives power to CSS to give style to HTML elements using HTML tags name.

Syntax:

HTML-tag-name{
    property: value;
 }

Example:

index.html

<body>
  <h1>Individual Selector</h1>
  <p>It gives power to CSS to give style to HTML elements using HTML <b>Tags names</b></p>
  <button>Learn more</button>
</body>

style.css

*{ /* -- Universal Selector */
    color: white;
    background-color: black;
}

body{
    border: 2px solid green;
    border-radius: 10px;
    padding: 25px;
}

h1{
  color: aqua;
}

p{
    color: brown;
}

button{
    padding: 5px;
    background-color: chocolate;
    border-radius: 2px;
    border: none;
}

Output Screen:


Class Selector

Class is a power selector in CSS. You can select and give similar style to multiple HTML element at once.

Syntax:

.className {
    property: value;
 }

Example:
index.html

<body>

    <header class="header">
        <h1>Class Selector</h1>
    </header>

    <section class="main-body">
        <p>A demo example of how Class Selector work ... </p>
        <ul>
            <li class="classA">Item 1</li>
            <li class="classB">Item 2</li>
            <li class="classA">Item 3</li>
            <li class="classB">Item 4</li>
            <li class="classA">Item 5</li>
        </ul>

        <p>The above example contains of 2 classes:</p>
        <ul>
            <li class="classA">class = "classA"</li>
            <li class="classB">class = "classB"</li>
        </ul>
        <p>With just classA or classB you can apply similar style to multiple HTML elements at onces.</p>
        <hr>
    </section>
</body>

style.css

*{
    background-color: #000000;
    color: #ffffff;
}

.header{
    color: #00ffff;
    border: 2px solid #ff4500;
    border-radius: 5px;
    text-align: center;
}

.main-body{
    border: 2px solid #ff4500;
    border-radius: 5px;
}

li{
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    padding: 10px 5px;
}
.classA{
    border: 2px dotted #008000;
    border-radius: 5px;
}
.classB{
    border: 2px dashed #805300;
    border-radius: 5px;
}

Output Screen:


Id Selector

You can select element using Id selector by using "#". The value of id selector should be unique in a document.

Syntax:

#idName{
    property: value;
 }

Example:

index.html

<body>

    <h1 id="header">Welcome to Id Demo</h1>

    <p id="para1">Paragraph-1 is Selected by Id selector.</p>
    <p>Paragraph-2 not selected my Id selecter</p>

</body>

style.css

*{
    background-color: #000000;
    color: #ffffff;
}

#header{
    color: #0000ff;
    text-align: center;
    border: 2px dotted #9acd32;
}

#para1{
    color: #ff9100;
    font-size: 19px;
    font-weight: 600;
}

Output Screen:


Chained Selector

A CSS selector that combines multiple selector without space to target a particular element in HTML file that match all conditions together.

Syntax:

selector1.selector2{
    property: value;
 }

Example:

index.html

<body>
    <h1>Chained Selector</h1>

    <ul>
        <li class="red text-green">item-1</li>
        <li>item-2</li>
        <li class="red">item-3</li>
        <li>item-4</li>
    </ul>

</body>

style.css

*{
    background-color: #000000;
    color: #ffffff;
}

body{
    padding: 5px;
    border: 2px dotted #ff0000;
    border-radius: 5px;
}

h1{
    color: #00ffff;
}

ul li{
    margin: 9px;
    padding: 5px;
    border: 2px #ff4500;
    border-radius: 5px;
}
.red{
    background-color: #ff000063;
}

.text-green{
    color: green;
}

Output Screen:


-—» THE END, see you in Next Article😁👍