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Overview
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)
(select elements based on a specific relationship between them)
(select elements based on a certain state)
(select and style a part of an element)
(select elements based on an attribute or attribute value) This page will explain the most basic CSS selectors.
The element selector selects HTML elements based on the element name.
Formula
Here, all < p > elements on the page will be center - aligned, with a red text color:p
{
text-align: center;
color: red;
}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.
The CSS rule below will be applied to the HTML element with id="para1": #para1
{
text-align: center;
color: red;
}An id name cannot start with a number!
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.
Formula
In this example all HTML elements with class ="center" will be red and center - aligned:.center {text-align: center;
color: red;
}You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class.
Formula
In this example only < p > elements with class ="center" will be red and center - aligned:p.center {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}HTML elements can also refer to more than one class.
Formula
In this example the < p > element will be styled according to class ="center"and to class="large": <p class="center large">This paragraph refers to two classes.</p>
A class name cannot start with a number!