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
(orI
) 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
(orS
) before the closing bracket causes the value to be compared case-sensitively (for characters within the ASCII range).
Examples
Links
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
attr()
- Selecting a single element:
Document.querySelector()
,DocumentFragment.querySelector()
, orElement.querySelector()
- Selecting all matching elements:
Document.querySelectorAll()
,DocumentFragment.querySelectorAll()
, orElement.querySelectorAll()