CSS 2.1 selectors

Overview of CSS 2.1 selector syntax

Selector type	Pattern	Description
Universal	*	Matches any element.
Type	E	Matches any E element.
Class	.info	Matches any element whose class attribute contains the value info.
ID	#footer	Matches any element with an id equal to footer.
Descendant	E F	Matches any F element that is a descendant of an E element.
Child	E > F	Matches any F element that is a child of an E element.
Adjacent	E + F	Matches any F element immediately preceded by a sibling element E.
Attribute	E[att]	Matches any E element that has an att attribute, regardless of its value.
Attribute	E[att=val]	Matches any E element whose att attribute value is exactly equal to val.
Attribute	E[att~=val]	Matches any E element whose att attribute value is a list of space-separated values, one of which is exactly equal to val.
Attribute	E[att|=val]	Matches any E element whose att attribute has a hyphen-separated list of values beginning with val.
The :first-child pseudo-class	E:first-child	Matches element E when E is the first child of its parent.
The link pseudo-classes	E:link E:visited	Matches not yet visited (:link) or already visited (:visited) links.
The dynamic pseudo-classes	E:active E:hover E:focus	Matches E during certain user actions.
The :language pseudo-class	E:lang(c)	Matches elements of type E that are in language c.
The :first-line pseudo-element	E:first-line	Matches the contents of the first formatted line of element E.
The :first-letter pseudo-element	E:first-letter	Matches the first letter of element E.
The :before and :after pseudo-elements	E:before E:after	Used to insert generated content before or after an element’s content.

descendant

An element that is the child, grandchild or later descendant of an element in the document tree.

ancestor

An element that is the parent, grandparent or earlier ancestor of an element in the document tree.

child

The direct descendant of an element. No other elements may come between the two in the document tree.

parent

The direct ancestor of an element. No other element may come between the two in the document tree.

sibling

An element that has the same parent as the current element.