Attribute selectors

The CSS attribute selector matches elements based on the presence or value of a given attribute.

/* <a> elements with a title attribute */
a[title] {
  color: purple;
}

/* <a> elements with an href matching "https://example.org" */
a[href="https://example.org"] {
  color: green;
}

/* <a> elements with an href containing "example" */
a[href*="example"] {
  font-size: 2em;
}

/* <a> elements with an href ending ".org" */
a[href$=".org"] {
  font-style: italic;
}

/* <a> elements whose class attribute contains the word "logo" */
a[class~="logo"] {
  padding: 2px;
}

Syntax

[attr]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr.

[attr=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is exactly value.

[attr~=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is a whitespace-separated list of words, one of which is exactly value.

[attr|=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value can be exactly value or can begin with value immediately followed by a hyphen, - (U+002D). It is often used for language subcode matches.

[attr^=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is prefixed (preceded) by value.

[attr$=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is suffixed (followed) by value.

[attr*=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value contains at least one occurrence of value within the string.

[attr operator value i]

Adding an i (or I) before the closing bracket causes the value to be compared case-insensitively (for characters within the ASCII range).

[attr operator value s]

Adding an s (or S) before the closing bracket causes the value to be compared case-sensitively (for characters within the ASCII range).

Examples

CSS

a {
  color: blue;
}

/* Internal links, beginning with "#" */
a[href^="#"] {
  background-color: gold;
}

/* Links with "example" anywhere in the URL */
a[href*="example"] {
  background-color: silver;
}

/* Links with "insensitive" anywhere in the URL,
   regardless of capitalization */
a[href*="insensitive" i] {
  color: cyan;
}

/* Links with "cAsE" anywhere in the URL,
with matching capitalization */
a[href*="cAsE" s] {
  color: pink;
}

/* Links that end in ".org" */
a[href$=".org"] {
  color: red;
}

/* Links that start with "https" and end in ".org" */
a[href^="https"][href$=".org"] {
  color: green;
}

HTML

<ul>
  <li><a href="#internal">Internal link</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://example.com">Example link</a></li>
  <li><a href="#InSensitive">Insensitive internal link</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://example.org">Example org link</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://example.org">Example https org link</a></li>
</ul>

Result

Languages

CSS

/* All divs with a `lang` attribute are bold. */
div[lang] {
  font-weight: bold;
}

/* All divs without a `lang` attribute are italicized. */
div:not([lang]) {
  font-style: italic;
}

/* All divs in US English are blue. */
div[lang~="en-us"] {
  color: blue;
}

/* All divs in Portuguese are green. */
div[lang="pt"] {
  color: green;
}

/* All divs in Chinese are red, whether
   simplified (zh-CN) or traditional (zh-TW). */
div[lang|="zh"] {
  color: red;
}

/* All divs with a Traditional Chinese
   `data-lang` are purple. */
/* Note: You could also use hyphenated attributes
   without double quotes */
div[data-lang="zh-TW"] {
  color: purple;
}

HTML

<div lang="en-us en-gb en-au en-nz">Hello World!</div>
<div lang="pt">Olá Mundo!</div>
<div lang="zh-CN">世界您好！</div>
<div lang="zh-TW">世界您好！</div>
<div data-lang="zh-TW">世界您好！</div>

Result

HTML ordered lists

The HTML specification requires the type attribute to be matched case-insensitively because it is primarily used in the <input> element. Note that if the modifiers are not supported by the user agent, then the selector will not match.

CSS

/* Case-sensitivity depends on document language */
ol[type="a"] {
  list-style-type: lower-alpha;
  background: red;
}

ol[type="b" s] {
  list-style-type: lower-alpha;
  background: lime;
}

ol[type="B" s] {
  list-style-type: upper-alpha;
  background: grey;
}

ol[type="c" i] {
  list-style-type: upper-alpha;
  background: green;
}

HTML

<ol type="A">
  <li>Red background for case-insensitive matching (default for the type selector)</li>
</ol>
<ol type="b">
  <li>Lime background if `s` modifier is supported (case-sensitive match)</li>
</ol>
<ol type="B">
  <li>Grey background if `s` modifier is supported (case-sensitive match)</li>
</ol>
<ol type="C">
  <li>Green background if `i` modifier is supported (case-insensitive match)</li>
</ol>

Result

Specifications

Specification
Selectors Level 4
# attribute-selectors

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also