Overview
We are well-acquainted with the numerous types of selectors that can be employed in web pages or website creation. But do we possess knowledge of every single one of them? If the answer to that query happened to be "no," that is perfectly fine; it is completely acceptable. Nevertheless, it remains incumbent upon us as developers to make every effort to familiarize ourselves with different selectors.
Acquiring knowledge of different CSS attributes will enhance efficiency and speed in our tasks. It's common to encounter challenges on a webpage or site and feel unsure of the next step. In such situations, realizing the simplicity of the issue could have been resolved with basic CSS understanding becomes apparent after seeking solutions. Hence, our focus in this write-up will delve into selectors, a fundamental feature in CSS.
Selectors are employed for selecting elements on a website or webpage, as the name suggests. They are essentially passive. Selectors enable us to designate which elements to select and then implement specific actions on those selected elements. Despite their apparent simplicity, comprehending selectors is vital because using the wrong one could potentially disrupt our code, rendering all our efforts futile. Therefore, it is imperative to have a comprehensive grasp of each property before implementation.
If we decide to start implementing a property without sufficient knowledge, we might face significant repercussions.
Meaning and application
Now that we comprehend the importance of selectors, let's delve into a specific type known as wildcard selectors (*, ^, and $). For those
CSS Wildcard selectors for classes (*, ^, and $)
Selectors play a crucial role in CSS as they enable the selection of elements based on attributes like class name, id, tag, and more. Additionally, developers can craft queries to target specific HTML elements by leveraging various wildcard selectors provided by CSS.
We can select an HTML element that has a specific substring within the attribute value, like class or id, by employing wildcard selectors. This guide will explore the utilization of the *, ^, and $ wildcard selectors for classes and ids.
Syntax:
[attribute*="value"] {
// Property of CSS
}
Contains wildcard selector in CSS called (*=).
Developers have the ability to identify all HTML elements with attribute values that include the specific word "string" by employing the contains (=) wildcard selector. For instance, by utilizing the '' wildcard selector in conjunction with the class attribute, it will identify all HTML elements with class names that encompass the specified string.
Syntax:
Users have the option to employ the contains (*) wildcard selector for classes by adhering to the provided instructions below.
[class*="string"] {
}
The method mentioned above chooses all HTML components containing the term "string" within their class attribute.
As an illustration
The four unique div elements in the following example contain text assigned based on their respective class names. In order to select all div elements with class names that include the term "test" as a partial match, we made use of CSS's "contains" wildcard selector.
Users can observe that the initial pair of div elements have their content displayed in red within the result, as they contain both the class identifier and the "test" subsequence.
HTML code
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>
<body>
<p>Example by using the <b> contains (*=) </b> wildcard CSS selector in CSS. </p>
<div class = "main1"> <h1>This text belongs to the main1 class.</h1></div>
<div class = "main"><h1> This text belongs to the main class.</h1> </div>
<div class="example"> This section uses an example of a class name. </div>
<div class="CSS"> This section uses an example of a class name CSS.</div>
</body>
</html>
CSS code
body{
padding: 25px;
}
.CSS {
color: green;
}
.example{
color:green;
}
.main {
color:green;
}
.main1 {
color:green;
}
Output
Begins with the CSS wildcard selector (^=).
We can select all HTML elements with attribute values starting with a specific substring by employing the starts with (^=) wildcard selector.
Syntax:
To employ the starts with wildcard selection for classes, individuals can follow the syntax provided below.
[class^="string"] {
}
All HTML elements starting with a class name "string" are targeted using the provided syntax.
Example
In the given illustration, items were chosen according to the class name by employing the starts-with (^=) wildcard CSS selector alongside the class.
Users will notice that the initial and final div components turn the text blue in the output due to the presence of the term "test" at the start. In contrast, even though the second div contains the class identifier "test," it is positioned at the end of the class name, rendering it immune to selection by the starts with (^=) wildcard selector.
<html>
<head>
<style>
[class^="main"] {
color: red;
font-weight: italic;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Example using the <i> starts with (^=) </i> wildcard CSS selector </h3>
<div class = "main"> This text belongs to the main class.</div>
<div class = "example"> This section uses an example of a class name. </div>
<div class = "test"> This text belongs to the test class. </div>
<div class = "CSS"> This text belongs to the CSS class. </div>
</body>
</html>
Output
Ends in the CSS wildcard selector ($=)
All HTML elements are selected using the ends with ($=) wildcard selector when a specific property value includes a particular substring at the end. For instance, if there are two distinct elements with class names "onestart" and "lastone," and the substring is "one," the selector will target the HTML element with the class name "lastone" as it includes the substring at the end.
Syntax:
Users have the option to employ this syntax in order to make use of the ends with ($=) wildcard CSS selector for targeting classes.
[class$="string"] {
}
All HTML elements with a class name that concludes with the "string" substring are targeted using the syntax mentioned earlier.
Example
The term "test" is found at the conclusion of the class name value within the second and fourth sections in the provided example. We have targeted these div elements and assigned styles such as border, margin, and padding by utilizing the ends with ($=) wildcard CSS selector.
<html>
<head>
<style>
[class$="demo"] {
border: 3px solid blue;
padding: 5px 15px;
margin: 7px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>By using <i>which ends with ($=)</i> wildcard CSS selector in CSS.</h2>
<div class = "main"> This text belongs to the class main.</div>
<div class = "test"> This text belongs to the class test. </div>
<div class = "demo"> This text belongs to the class demo. </div>
<div class = "element"> This text belongs to the class element. </div>
</body>
</html>
Output
Example
Instead of employing the class as an attribute, we opt for the id in combination with the ends-with CSS selector in the following example. This demonstrates the method of selecting HTML elements by leveraging a wildcard CSS selector alongside additional attributes.
In this case, we modify the font formatting and color for all HTML elements with an id that concludes with "name."
<html>
<head>
<style>
[id$="name"] {
color: red;
font-style: bold;
font-size: 3rem;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Example using the <i> ends with ($=) </i> wildcard CSS selector</h3>
<div id = "firstname"> id == firstname </div>
<div id = "lastname"> id == lastname </div>
<div id = "age"> id == age </div>
<div id = "namestart"> id == namestart </div>
</body>
</html>
Output
Summary
We received instruction on the wildcard CSS selectors designed for classes. Individuals have the option to utilize the includes (*=) CSS selector to locate elements with attribute values that include a specific substring within them. As a substitute, users have the ability to locate elements with attribute values that start with a particular substring and end with a specific substring by employing the begins with (^=) CSS selector.
In the earlier instance, we also discovered how to leverage the wildcard CSS selector with extra attributes, such as an identifier.