Selectors Level 4

1. Introduction

This section is not normative.

A selector is a boolean predicate that takes an element in a tree structure and tests whether the element matches the selector or not.

These expressions may be used for many things:

• directly on an element to test whether it matches some criteria, such as in the element.matches() function defined in [DOM]
• applied to an entire tree of elements to filter it into a set of elements that match the criteria, such as in the document.querySelectorAll() function defined in [DOM] or the selector of a CSS style rule.
• used "in reverse" to generate markup that would match a given selector, such as in HAML or Emmet.

Selectors Levels 1, 2, and 3 are defined as the subsets of selector functionality defined in the CSS1, CSS2.1, and Selectors Level 3 specifications, respectively. This module defines Selectors Level 4.

1.1. Module Interactions

This module replaces the definitions of and extends the set of selectors defined for CSS in [SELECT] and [CSS21].

Pseudo-element selectors, which define abstract elements in a rendering tree, are not part of this specification: their generic syntax is described here, but, due to their close integration with the rendering model and irrelevance to other uses such as DOM queries, they will be defined in other modules.

2. Selectors Overview

This section is non-normative, as it merely summarizes the following sections.

A selector represents a structure. This structure can be used as a condition (e.g. in a CSS rule) that determines which elements a selector matches in the document tree, or as a flat description of the HTML or XML fragment corresponding to that structure.

Selectors may range from simple element names to rich contextual representations.

The following table summarizes the Selector syntax:

Note: Some Level 4 selectors (noted above as "3-UI") were introduced in [CSS3UI].

3. Selector Syntax and Structure

3.1. Structure and Terminology

A selector represents a particular pattern of element(s) in a tree structure. The term selector can refer to a simple selector, compound selector, complex selector, or selector list. The subject of a selector is any element that selector is defined to be about; that is, any element matching that selector.

A simple selector is a single condition on an element. A type selector, universal selector, attribute selector, class selector, ID selector, or pseudo-class is a simple selector. (It is represented by <simple-selector> in the selectors grammar.) A given element is said to match a simple selector when that simple selector, as defined in this specification and in accordance with the document language, accurately describes the element.

A compound selector is a sequence of simple selectors that are not separated by a combinator, and represents a set of simultaneous conditions on a single element. If it contains a type selector or universal selector, that selector must come first in the sequence. Only one type selector or universal selector is allowed in the sequence. (A compound selector is represented by <compound-selector> in the selectors grammar.) A given element is said to match a compound selector when it matches all simple selectors in the compound selector.

Note: As whitespace represents the descendant combinator, no whitespace is allowed between the simple selectors in a compound selector.

A pseudo-compound selector is a pseudo-element selector, optionally followed by additional pseudo-class selectors, and optionally preceded by a compound selector or another pseudo-compound selector, without any combinators. (A pseudo-compound selector is represented by <pseudo-compound-selector> in the selectors grammar.) A pseudo-element matches a pseudo-compound selector when it has the specified pseudo-element name, matches the additional conditions represented by any pseudo-classes, and has an originating element represented by the adjacent preceding selector. If there is no adjacent preceding selector, the universal selector is assumed. (For example, .foo ::before is equivalent to .foo *::before, and distinct from .foo::before.)

Note: A pseudo-compound selector is not a compound selector, and can’t be used in places that expect a compound selector only. Pseudo-compound selectors act as if they carry a combinator with themselves, expressing their relationship with their originating element, just as the > combinator expresses a relationship with a parent element.

A combinator is a condition of relationship between two elements represented by the compound selectors on either side. Combinators in Selectors Level 4 include: the descendant combinator (white space), the child combinator (U+003E, >), the next-sibling combinator (U+002B, +), and the subsequent-sibling combinator (U+007E, ~). Two given elements are said to match a combinator when the condition of relationship between these elements is true.

A complex selector is a sequence of one or more compound selectors and/or pseudo-compound selectors, with compound selectors separated by combinators. It represents a set of simultaneous conditions on a set of elements in the particular relationships described by its combinators. (Complex selectors are represented by <complex-selector> in the selectors grammar.) A given element or pseudo-element is said to match a complex selector when it matches the final compound/pseudo-compound selector in the sequence, and every preceding unit of the sequence also matches an element or pseudo-element, with the correct relationship between consecutive units as expressed by the combinators separating them (or, for pseudo-compound selectors, the correct originating element relationship).

A list of simple/compound/complex selectors is a comma-separated list of simple, compound, or complex selectors. This is also called just a selector list when the type is either unimportant or specified in the surrounding prose; if the type is important and unspecified, it defaults to meaning a list of complex selectors. (See § 4.1 Selector Lists for additional information on selector lists and the various <*-selector-list> productions in the grammar for their formal syntax.) A given element is said to match a selector list when it matches any (at least one) of the selectors in that selector list.

3.2. Data Model

Selectors are evaluated against an element tree such as the DOM. [DOM] Within this specification, this may be referred to as the "document tree" or "source document".

Each element may have any of the following five aspects, which can be selected against, all of which are matched as strings:

• The element’s type (also known as its tag name).
• The element’s namespace.
• An ID.
• Classes (named groups) to which it belongs.
• Attributes, which are name-value pairs.

Many of the selectors depend on the semantics of the document language (i.e. the language and semantics of the document tree) and/or the semantics of the host language (i.e. the language that is using selectors syntax). For example, the :lang() selector depends on the document language (e.g. HTML) to define how an element is associated with a language. As a slightly different example, the ::first-line pseudo-element depends on the host language (e.g. CSS) to define what a ::first-line pseudo-element represents and what it can do.

3.2.1. Featureless Elements

While individual elements may lack any of the above features, some elements are featureless. A featureless element does not match any selector at all, except:

• simple selectors it is explicitly defined to match

• compound selectors, if all contained simple selectors are allowed to match it

• complex selectors, if the compound selector targeting the subject is allowed to match it

• selector lists, if at least one selector in the list is allowed to match it

• logical combination pseudo-classes, if their argument selector is allowed to match it

• the :has() pseudo-class, if and only if the compound selector it’s part of contains at least one other simple selector that’s allowed to match it.

If a selector would otherwise match a featureless element, except for the existence of the default namespace [CSS-NAMESPACES-3] (because featureless elements do not have a namespace unless otherwise defined), the default namespace does not prevent the match.

3.3. Scoped Selectors

Some host applications may choose to scope selectors to a particular subtree or fragment of the document, The root of the scoping subtree is called the scoping root.

When a selector is scoped, it matches an element only if the element is a descendant of the scoping root. (The rest of the selector can match unrestricted; it’s only the final matched elements that must be within the scope.)

3.4. Relative Selectors

Certain contexts may accept relative selectors, which are a shorthand for selectors that represent elements relative to one or more relative selector anchor elements. Relative selectors begin with a combinator, with a selector representing the anchor element implied at the start of the selector. (If no combinator is present, the descendant combinator is implied.)

Relative selectors are represented by <relative-selector> in the selectors grammar, and lists of them by <relative-selector-list>.

3.5. Pseudo-classes

Pseudo-classes are simple selectors that permit selection based on information that lies outside of the document tree or that can be awkward or impossible to express using the other simple selectors. They can also be dynamic, in the sense that an element can acquire or lose a pseudo-class while a user interacts with the document, without the document itself changing. Pseudo-classes do not appear in or modify the document source or document tree.

The syntax of a pseudo-class consists of a ":" (U+003A COLON) followed by the name of the pseudo-class as a CSS identifier, and, in the case of a functional pseudo-class, a pair of parentheses containing its arguments.

For example, :valid is a regular pseudo-class, and :lang() is a functional pseudo-class.

Like all CSS keywords, pseudo-class names are ASCII case-insensitive. No white space is allowed between the colon and the name of the pseudo-class, nor, as usual for CSS syntax, between a functional pseudo-class’s name and its opening parenthesis (which thus form a CSS function token). Also as usual, white space is allowed around the arguments inside the parentheses of a functional pseudo-class unless otherwise specified.

Like other simple selectors, pseudo-classes are allowed in all compound selectors contained in a selector, and must follow the type selector or universal selector, if present.

Note: Some pseudo-classes are mutually exclusive (such that a compound selector containing them, while valid, will never match anything), while others can apply simultaneously to the same element.

3.6. Pseudo-elements

Similar to how certain pseudo-classes represent additional state information not directly present in the document tree, a pseudo-element represents an element not directly present in the document tree. They are used to create abstractions about the document tree beyond those provided by the document tree. For example, pseudo-elements can be used to select portions of the document that do not correspond to a document-language element (including such ranges as don’t align to element boundaries or fit within its tree structure); that represent content not in the document tree or in an alternate projection of the document tree; or that rely on information provided by styling, layout, user interaction, and other processes that are not reflected in the document tree.

Like pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements do not appear in or modify the document source or document tree. Accordingly, they also do not affect the interpretation of structural pseudo-classes or other selectors pertaining to their originating element or its tree.

The host language defines which pseudo-elements exist, their type, and their abilities. Pseudo-elements that exist in CSS are defined in [CSS21] (Level 2), [SELECT] (Level 3), and [CSS-PSEUDO-4] (Level 4).

3.6.1. Syntax

The syntax of a pseudo-element is "::" (two U+003A COLON characters) followed by the name of the pseudo-element as an identifier, and, in the case of a functional pseudo-element, a pair of parentheses containing its arguments. Pseudo-element names are ASCII case-insensitive. No white space is allowed between the two colons, or between the colons and the name.

Because CSS Level 1 and CSS Level 2 conflated pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes by sharing a single-colon syntax for both, user agents must also accept the previous one-colon notation for the Level 1 & 2 pseudo-elements (::before, ::after, ::first-line, and ::first-letter). This compatibility notation is not allowed for any other pseudo-elements. However, as this syntax is deprecated, authors should use the Level 3+ double-colon syntax for these pseudo-elements.

Pseudo-elements are featureless, and so can’t be matched by any other selector.

3.6.2. Binding to the Document Tree

Pseudo-elements do not exist independently in the tree: they are always bound to another element on the page, called their originating element. Syntactically, a pseudo-element immediately follows the compound selector representing its originating element. If this compound selector is omitted, it is assumed to be the universal selector *.

When a pseudo-element is encountered in a selector, the part of the selector before the pseudo-element selects the originating element for the pseudo-element; the part of the selector after it, if any, applies to the pseudo-element itself. (See below.)

3.6.3. Pseudo-classing Pseudo-elements

Certain pseudo-elements may be immediately followed by any combination of certain pseudo-classes, in which case the pseudo-element is represented only when it is in the corresponding state. This specification allows any pseudo-element to be followed by any combination of the logical combination pseudo-classes and the user action pseudo-classes. Other specifications may allow additional pseudo-classes to be attached to particular pseudo-elements. Combinations that are not explicitly allowed are invalid selectors.

Note: The logical combination pseudo-classes pass any restrictions on validity of selectors at their position to their arguments.

3.6.4. Sub-pseudo-elements

Some pseudo-elements are able to be the originating element of other pseudo-elements, which are defined as the sub-pseudo-elements of this originating pseudo-element. For example, when ::before is given a list-item display type, it becomes the originating pseudo-element of its ::before::marker sub-pseudo-element.

Where disambiguation is needed, the term ultimate originating element refers to the real (non-pseudo) element from which a pseudo-element originates.

Unless the corresponding sub-pseudo-element is explicitly defined to exist in another specification, pseudo-element selectors are not valid when compounded to another pseudo-element selector. So, for example, ::before::before is an invalid selector, but ::before::marker is valid (in implementations that support the ::before::marker sub-pseudo-element).

3.6.5. Internal Structure

Some pseudo-elements are defined to have internal structure. These pseudo-elements may be followed by child/descendant combinators to express those relationships. Selectors containing combinators after the pseudo-element are otherwise invalid.

Note: A future specification may expand the capabilities of existing pseudo-elements, so some of these currently-invalid selectors (e.g. ::first-line :any-link) may become valid in the future.

The children of such pseudo-elements can simultaneously be children of other elements, too. However, at least in CSS, their rendering must be defined so as to maintain the tree-ness of the box tree.

3.7. Characters and case sensitivity

All Selectors syntax is ASCII case-insensitive (i.e. [a-z] and [A-Z] are equivalent), except for the parts that are not under the control of Selectors: specifically, the case-sensitivity of document language element names, attribute names, and attribute values depends on the document language.

Case sensitivity of namespace prefixes is defined in [CSS3NAMESPACE]. Case sensitivity of language ranges is defined in the :lang() section.

White space in Selectors consists of the code points SPACE (U+0020), TAB (U+0009), LINE FEED (U+000A), CARRIAGE RETURN (U+000D), and FORM FEED (U+000C). Other space-like code points, such as EM SPACE (U+2003) and IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE (U+3000), are never considered syntactic white space.

Code points in Selectors can be escaped with a backslash according to the same escaping rules as CSS. [CSS21] Note that escaping a code point “cancels out” any special meaning it may have in Selectors. For example, the selector #foo>a contains a combinator, but #foo\>a instead selects an element with the id foo>a.

3.8. Declaring Namespace Prefixes

Certain selectors support namespace prefixes. The mechanism by which namespace prefixes are declared should be specified by the language that uses Selectors. If the language does not specify a namespace prefix declaration mechanism, then no prefixes are declared. In CSS, namespace prefixes are declared with the @namespace rule. [CSS3NAMESPACE]

3.9. Invalid Selectors and Error Handling

User agents must observe the rules for handling invalid selectors:

• a parsing error in a selector, e.g. an unrecognized token or a token which is not allowed at the current parsing point (see overall § 18 Grammar and per-selector syntax definitions), causes that selector to be invalid.
• a simple selector containing an undeclared namespace prefix is invalid
• a selector containing an invalid simple selector, an invalid combinator or an invalid token is invalid.
• a selector list containing an invalid selector is invalid.
• an empty selector, i.e. one that contains no compound selector, is invalid.

Note: Consistent with CSS’s forwards-compatible parsing principle, UAs must treat as invalid any pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements, combinators, or other syntactic constructs for which they have no usable level of support. See Partial implementations.

An invalid selector represents, and therefore matches, nothing.

3.10. Legacy Aliases

Some selectors have a legacy selector alias. This is a name which, at parse time, is converted to the standard name (and thus does not appear anywhere in any object model representing the selector).

4. Logical Combinations

Selector logic can be manipulated by compounding (logical AND), selector lists (logical OR), and the logical combination pseudo-classes :is(), :where(), and :not(). The logical combination pseudo-classes are allowed anywhere that any other pseudo-classes are allowed, but pass any restrictions to their arguments. (For example, if only compound selectors are allowed, then only compound selectors are valid within an :is().)

Note: Since inside :is() and :where() invalid arguments are dropped without invaliding the pseudo-class itself, selector arguments that are invalidated by contextual restrictions likewise do not invalidate the :is() pseudo-class itself.

4.1. Selector Lists

A comma-separated list of selectors represents the union of all elements selected by each of the individual selectors in the selector list. (A comma is U+002C.) For example, in CSS when several selectors share the same declarations, they may be grouped into a comma-separated list. White space may appear before and/or after the comma.

h1 { font-family: sans-serif }
h2 { font-family: sans-serif }
h3 { font-family: sans-serif }

h1, h2, h3 { font-family: sans-serif }

Warning: the equivalence is true in this example because all the selectors are valid selectors. If just one of these selectors were invalid, the entire selector list would be invalid. This would invalidate the rule for all three heading elements, whereas in the former case only one of the three individual heading rules would be invalidated.

h1 { font-family: sans-serif }
h2..foo { font-family: sans-serif }
h3 { font-family: sans-serif }

h1, h2..foo, h3 { font-family: sans-serif } 

4.2. The Matches-Any Pseudo-class: :is()

The matches-any pseudo-class, :is(), is a functional pseudo-class taking a <forgiving-selector-list> as its sole argument.

If the argument, after parsing, is an empty list, the pseudo-class is valid but matches nothing. Otherwise, the pseudo-class matches any element that matches any of the selectors in the list.

Note: The specificity of the :is() pseudo-class is replaced by the specificity of its most specific argument. Thus, a selector written with :is() does not necessarily have equivalent specificity to the equivalent selector written without :is() For example, if we have :is(ul, ol, .list) > [hidden] and ul > [hidden], ol > [hidden], .list > [hidden] a [hidden] child of an ol matches the first selector with a specificity of (0,2,0) whereas it matches the second selector with a specificity of (0,1,1). See § 17 Calculating a selector’s specificity.

Pseudo-elements cannot be represented by the matches-any pseudo-class; they are not valid within :is().

Default namespace declarations do not affect the compound selector representing the subject of any selector within a :is() pseudo-class, unless that compound selector contains an explicit universal selector or type selector.

*|*:is(:hover, :focus) 

*|*:is(*:hover, *:focus) 

As previous drafts of this specification used the name :matches() for this pseudo-class, UAs may additionally implement this obsolete name as a legacy selector alias for :is() if needed for backwards-compatibility.

4.3. The Negation (Matches-None) Pseudo-class: :not()

The negation pseudo-class, :not(), is a functional pseudo-class taking a <complex-real-selector-list> as an argument. It represents an element that is not represented by its argument.

Note: In Selectors Level 3, only a single simple selector was allowed as the argument to :not().

Note: The specificity of the :not() pseudo-class is replaced by the specificity of the most specific selector in its argument; thus it has the exact behavior of :not(:is(argument)). See § 17 Calculating a selector’s specificity.

Pseudo-elements cannot be represented by the negation pseudo-class; they are not valid within :not().

button:not([DISABLED]) 

*:not(FOO)

html|*:not(:link):not(:visited)

As with :is(), default namespace declarations do not affect the compound selector representing the subject of any selector within a :not() pseudo-class, unless that compound selector contains an explicit universal selector or type selector. (See :is() for examples.)

Note: The :not() pseudo-class allows useless selectors to be written. For instance :not(*|*), which represents no element at all, or div:not(span), which is equivalent to div but with a higher specificity.

4.4. The Specificity-adjustment Pseudo-class: :where()

The Specificity-adjustment pseudo-class, :where(), is a functional pseudo-class with the same syntax and functionality as :is(). Unlike :is(), neither the :where() pseudo-class, nor any of its arguments, contribute to the specificity of the selector—​its specificity is always zero.

This is useful for introducing filters in a selector while keeping the associated style declarations easy to override.

a:not(:hover) {
  text-decoration: none;
}

nav a {
  /* Has no effect */
  text-decoration: underline;
}

a:where(:not(:hover)) {
  text-decoration: none;
}

nav a {
  /* Works now! */
  text-decoration: underline;
}

Note: Future levels of Selectors may introduce an additional argument to explicitly set the specificity of that instance of the pseudo-class.

4.5. The Relational Pseudo-class: :has()

The relational pseudo-class, :has(), is a functional pseudo-class taking a <relative-selector-list> as an argument. It represents an element if any of the relative selectors would match at least one element when anchored against this element.

The :has() pseudo-class cannot be nested; :has() is not valid within :has(). Also, unless explicitly defined as a :has-allowed pseudo-element, pseudo-elements are not valid selectors within :has(). (This specification does not define any :has-allowed pseudo-elements, but other specifications may do so.)

Note: Pseudo-elements are generally excluded from :has() because many of them exist conditionally, based on the styling of their ancestors, so allowing these to be queried by :has() would introduce cycles.

Note: Since :has() takes a <relative-selector-list>, its arguments are inherently complex selectors (because they start, perhaps implicitly, with a combinator). This means :has() cannot be used in contexts that don’t allow complex selectors; its arguments will be guaranteed to be invalid.

a:has(> img)

dt:has(+ dt)

section:not(:has(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6))

section:has(:not(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6))

5. Elemental selectors

5.1. Type (tag name) selector

A type selector is the name of a document language element type, and represents an instance of that element type in the document tree.

A type selector is written as a CSS qualified name: an identifier with an optional namespace prefix. [CSS3NAMESPACE] (See § 5.3 Namespaces in Elemental Selectors.)

5.2. Universal selector

The universal selector is a special type selector, that represents an element of any element type.

It is written as a CSS qualified name with an asterisk (* U+002A) as the local name. Like a type selector, the universal selector can be qualified by a namespace, restricting it to only elements belonging to that namespace, and is affected by a default namespace as defined in § 5.3 Namespaces in Elemental Selectors.

Unless an element is featureless, the presence of a universal selector has no effect on whether the element matches the selector. (Featureless elements do not match any selector, including the universal selector.)

The universal selector follows the same syntax rules as other type selectors: only one can appear per compound selector, and it must be the first simple selector in the compound selector.

Note: In some cases, adding a universal selector can make a selector easier to read, even though it has no effect on the matching behavior. For example, div :first-child and div:first-child are somewhat difficult to tell apart at a quick glance, but writing the former as div *:first-child makes the difference obvious.

5.3. Namespaces in Elemental Selectors

Type selectors and universal selectors allow an optional namespace component: a namespace prefix that has been previously declared may be prepended to the element name separated by the namespace separator “vertical bar” (| U+007C). (See, e.g., [XML-NAMES] for the use of namespaces in XML.) It has the following meaning in each form:

ns|E

elements with name E in namespace ns

*|E

elements with name E in any namespace, including those without a namespace

|E

elements with name E without a namespace

E

if no default namespace has been declared for selectors, this is equivalent to *|E. Otherwise it is equivalent to ns|E where ns is the default namespace.

@namespace foo url(http://www.example.com);
foo|h1 { color: blue }  /* first rule */
foo|* { color: yellow } /* second rule */
|h1 { color: red }      /* ...*/
*|h1 { color: green }
h1 { color: green }

If a default namespace is declared, compound selectors without type selectors in them still only match elements in that default namespace.

@namespace url("http://example.com/foo");

.special { ... }

A type selector or universal selector containing a namespace prefix that has not been previously declared is an invalid selector.

5.4. The Defined Pseudo-class: :defined

In some host languages, elements can have a distinction between being “defined”/“constructed” or not. The :defined pseudo-class matches elements that are fully defined, as dictated by the host language.

If the host language does not have this sort of distinction, all elements in it match :defined.

p:defined { ... }

custom-element { visibility: hidden }

custom-element:defined { visibility: visible }

6. Attribute selectors

Selectors allow the representation of an element’s attributes. When a selector is used as an expression to match against an element, an attribute selector must be considered to match an element if that element has an attribute that matches the attribute represented by the attribute selector.

Add comma-separated syntax for multiple-value matching? e.g. [rel ~= next, prev, up, first, last]

6.1. Attribute presence and value selectors

CSS2 introduced four attribute selectors:

[att]

Represents an element with the att attribute, whatever the value of the attribute.

[att=val]

Represents an element with the att attribute whose value is exactly "val".

[att~=val]

Represents an element with the att attribute whose value is a whitespace-separated list of words, one of which is exactly "val". If "val" contains whitespace, it will never represent anything (since the words are separated by spaces). Also if "val" is the empty string, it will never represent anything.

[att|=val]

Represents an element with the att attribute, its value either being exactly "val" or beginning with "val" immediately followed by "-" (U+002D). This is primarily intended to allow language subcode matches (e.g., the hreflang attribute on the a element in HTML) as described in BCP 47 ([BCP47]) or its successor. For lang (or xml:lang) language subcode matching, please see the :lang() pseudo-class.

Attribute values must be <ident-token>s or <string-token>s. [CSS3SYN]

h1[title]

span[class="example"]

span[hello="Cleveland"][goodbye="Columbus"]

a[rel~="copyright"] { ... }
a[href="http://www.w3.org/"] { ... }

a[hreflang=fr] 

a[hreflang|="en"] 

DIALOGUE[character=romeo]
DIALOGUE[character=juliet]

6.2. Substring matching attribute selectors

Three additional attribute selectors are provided for matching substrings in the value of an attribute:

[att^=val]

Represents an element with the att attribute whose value begins with the prefix "val". If "val" is the empty string then the selector does not represent anything.

[att$=val]

Represents an element with the att attribute whose value ends with the suffix "val". If "val" is the empty string then the selector does not represent anything.

[att*=val]

Represents an element with the att attribute whose value contains at least one instance of the substring "val". If "val" is the empty string then the selector does not represent anything.

Attribute values must be <ident-token>s or <string-token>s.

object[type^="image/"] 

a[href$=".html"] 

p[title*="hello"] 

6.3. Case-sensitivity

By default case-sensitivity of attribute names and values in selectors depends on the document language.

To match attribute values ASCII case-insensitively regardless of document language rules, the attribute selector may include the identifier i before the closing bracket (]). When this flag is present, UAs must match the attribute’s value ASCII case-insensitively (i.e. [a-z] and [A-Z] are considered equivalent).

Alternately, the attribute selector may include the identifier s before the closing bracket (]); in this case the UA must match the value case-sensitively, with “identical to” semantics [INFRA], regardless of document language rules.

Like the rest of Selectors syntax, the i and s identifiers themselves are ASCII case-insensitive.

[frame=hsides i] { border-style: solid none; } 

[type="a" s] { list-style: lower-alpha; }
[type="A" s] { list-style: upper-alpha; }

Note: Some document models normalize case-insensitive attribute values at parse time such that checking if a string is case-sensitive matching is impossible. Case-sensitive matching via s flags is only possible in systems that preserve the original case.

6.4. Attribute selectors and namespaces

The attribute name in an attribute selector is given as a CSS qualified name: a namespace prefix that has been previously declared may be prepended to the attribute name separated by the namespace separator "vertical bar" (|). In keeping with the Namespaces in the XML recommendation, default namespaces do not apply to attributes, therefore attribute selectors without a namespace component apply only to attributes that have no namespace (equivalent to |attr). An asterisk may be used for the namespace prefix indicating that the selector is to match all attribute names without regard to the attribute’s namespace.

An attribute selector with an attribute name containing a namespace prefix that has not been previously declared is an invalid selector.

@namespace foo "http://www.example.com";
[foo|att=val] { color: blue }
[*|att] { color: yellow }
[|att] { color: green }
[att] { color: green }

6.5. Default attribute values in DTDs

Attribute selectors represent attribute values in the document tree. How that document tree is constructed is outside the scope of Selectors. In some document formats default attribute values can be defined in a DTD or elsewhere, but these can only be selected by attribute selectors if they appear in the document tree. Selectors should be designed so that they work whether or not the default values are included in the document tree.

For example, a XML UA may, but is not required to, read an “external subset” of the DTD, but is required to look for default attribute values in the document’s “internal subset”. (See, e.g., [XML10] for definitions of these subsets.) Depending on the UA, a default attribute value defined in the external subset of the DTD might or might not appear in the document tree.

A UA that recognizes an XML namespace may, but is not required to use its knowledge of that namespace to treat default attribute values as if they were present in the document. (For example, an XHTML UA is not required to use its built-in knowledge of the XHTML DTD. See, e.g., [XML-NAMES] for details on namespaces in XML 1.0.)

Note: Typically, implementations choose to ignore external subsets. This corresponds to the behavior of non-validating processors as defined by the XML specification.

<!ATTLIST EXAMPLE radix (decimal,octal) "decimal"> 

EXAMPLE[radix=decimal] { /*... default property settings ...*/ }
EXAMPLE[radix=octal]   { /*... other settings...*/ }

EXAMPLE                { /*... default property settings ...*/ }
EXAMPLE[radix=octal]   { /*... other settings...*/ }

6.6. Class selectors

The class selector is given as a full stop (. U+002E) immediately followed by an identifier. It represents an element belonging to the class identified by the identifier, as defined by the document language. For example, in [HTML5], [SVG11], and [MATHML] membership in a class is given by the class attribute: in these languages it is equivalent to the ~= notation applied to the local class attribute (i.e. [class~=identifier]).

*.pastoral { color: green }  /* all elements with class~=pastoral */ 

.pastoral { color: green }  /* all elements with class~=pastoral */ 

H1.pastoral { color: green }  /* H1 elements with class~=pastoral */ 

<H1>Not green</H1>
<H1 class="pastoral">Very green</H1>

p.pastoral.marine { color: green } 

Note: Because CSS gives considerable power to the "class" attribute, authors could conceivably design their own "document language" based on elements with almost no associated presentation (such as div and span in HTML) and assigning style information through the "class" attribute. Authors should avoid this practice since the structural elements of a document language often have recognized and accepted meanings and author-defined classes may not.

Note: If an element has multiple class attributes, their values must be concatenated with spaces between the values before searching for the class. As of this time the working group is not aware of any manner in which this situation can be reached, however, so this behavior is explicitly non-normative in this specification.

When matching against a document which is in quirks mode, class names must be matched ASCII case-insensitively; class selectors are otherwise case-sensitive, only matching class names they are identical to. [INFRA]

6.7. ID selectors

Document languages may contain attributes that are declared to be of type ID. What makes attributes of type ID special is that no two such attributes can have the same value in a conformant document, regardless of the type of the elements that carry them; whatever the document language, an ID typed attribute can be used to uniquely identify its element. In HTML all ID attributes are named id; XML applications may name ID attributes differently, but the same restriction applies. Which attribute on an element is considered the “ID attribute” is defined by the document language.

An ID selector consists of a “number sign” (U+0023, #) immediately followed by the ID value, which must be a CSS identifier. An ID selector represents an element instance that has an identifier that matches the identifier in the ID selector. (It is possible in non-conforming documents for multiple elements to match a single ID selector.)

h1#chapter1 

#chapter1 

*#z98y 

Note: In XML 1.0 [XML10], the information about which attribute contains an element’s IDs is contained in a DTD or a schema. When parsing XML, UAs do not always read the DTD, and thus may not know what the ID of an element is (though a UA may have namespace-specific knowledge that allows it to determine which attribute is the ID attribute for that namespace). If a style sheet author knows or suspects that a UA may not know what the ID of an element is, they should use normal attribute selectors instead: [name=p371] instead of #p371.

If an element has multiple ID attributes, all of them must be treated as IDs for that element for the purposes of the ID selector. Such a situation could be reached using mixtures of xml:id, DOM3 Core, XML DTDs, and namespace-specific knowledge.

When matching against a document which is in quirks mode, IDs must be matched ASCII case-insensitively; ID selectors are otherwise case-sensitive, only matching IDs they are identical to. [INFRA]

7. Linguistic Pseudo-classes

7.1. The Directionality Pseudo-class: :dir()

The :dir() pseudo-class allows the author to write selectors that represent an element based on its directionality as determined by the document language. For example, [HTML5] defines how to determine the directionality of an element, based on a combination of the dir attribute, the surrounding text, and other factors. As another example, the its:dir and dirRule element of the Internationalization Tag Set [ITS20] are able to define the directionality of an element in [XML10].

The :dir() pseudo-class does not select based on stylistic states—for example, the CSS direction property does not affect whether it matches.

The pseudo-class :dir(ltr) represents an element that has a directionality of left-to-right (ltr). The pseudo-class :dir(rtl) represents an element that has a directionality of right-to-left (rtl). The argument to :dir() must be a single identifier, otherwise the selector is invalid. White space is optionally allowed between the identifier and the parentheses. Values other than ltr and rtl are not invalid, but do not match anything. (If a future markup spec defines other directionalities, then Selectors may be extended to allow corresponding values.)

The difference between :dir(C) and [dir=C] is that [dir=C] only performs a comparison against a given attribute on the element, while the :dir(C) pseudo-class uses the UAs knowledge of the document’s semantics to perform the comparison. For example, in HTML, the directionality of an element inherits so that a child without a dir attribute will have the same directionality as its closest ancestor with a valid dir attribute. As another example, in HTML, an element that matches [dir=auto] will match either :dir(ltr) or :dir(rtl) depending on the resolved directionality of the elements as determined by its contents. [HTML5]

7.2. The Language Pseudo-class: :lang()

If the document language specifies how the (human) content language of an element is determined, it is possible to write selectors that represent an element based on its content language. The :lang() pseudo-class, which accepts a comma-separated list of one or more language ranges, represents an element whose content language is one of the languages listed in its argument. Each language range in :lang() must be a valid CSS <ident> or <string>. (Thus language ranges containing asterisks, for example, must be either correctly escaped or quoted as strings, e.g. :lang(\*-Latn) or :lang("*-Latn").)

Note: The content language of an element is defined by the document language.

For example, in HTML [HTML5], the content language is determined by a combination of the lang attribute, information from meta elements, and possibly also the protocol (e.g. from HTTP headers). XML languages can use the xml:lang attribute to indicate language information for an element. [XML10]

The element’s content language matches a language range if its content language, as represented in BCP 47 syntax, matches the given language range in an extended filtering operation per [RFC4647] Matching of Language Tags (section 3.3.2). Both the content language and the language range must be canonicalized and converted to extlang form as per section 4.5 of [RFC5646] prior to the extended filtering operation. The matching is performed case-insensitively within the ASCII range.

The language range does not need to be a valid language code to perform this comparison.

A language range consisting of an empty string (:lang("")) matches (only) elements whose language is not tagged.

Note: It is recommended that documents and protocols indicate language using codes from [BCP47] or its successor, and in the case of XML-based formats, by means of xml:lang attributes. [XML10] See “FAQ: Two-letter or three-letter language codes.”

html:lang(fr-be)
html:lang(de)
:lang(fr-be) > q
:lang(de) > q

Note: One difference between :lang(C) and the |= operator is that the |= operator only performs a comparison against a given attribute on the element, while the :lang(C) pseudo-class uses the UAs knowledge of the document’s semantics to perform the comparison.

<body lang=fr>
  <p>Je suis français.</p>
</body>

Note: Wildcard language matching and comma-separated lists are new in Level 4.

8. Location Pseudo-classes

8.1. The Hyperlink Pseudo-class: :any-link

The :any-link pseudo-class represents an element that acts as the source anchor of a hyperlink. For example, in [HTML5], any a or area elements with an href attribute are hyperlinks, and thus match :any-link. It matches an element if the element would match either :link or :visited, and is equivalent to :is(:link, :visited).

8.2. The Link History Pseudo-classes: :link and :visited

User agents commonly display unvisited hyperlinks differently from previously visited ones. Selectors provides the pseudo-classes :link and :visited to distinguish them:

• The :link pseudo-class applies to links that have not yet been visited.
• The :visited pseudo-class applies once the link has been visited by the user.

After some amount of time, user agents may choose to return a visited link to the (unvisited) :link state.

The two states are mutually exclusive.

.footnote:visited 

Since it is possible for style sheet authors to abuse the :link and :visited pseudo-classes to determine which sites a user has visited without the user’s consent, UAs may treat all links as unvisited links or implement other measures to preserve the user’s privacy while rendering visited and unvisited links differently.

8.3. The Local Link Pseudo-class: :local-link

The :local-link pseudo-class allows authors to style hyperlinks based on the users current location within a site. It represents an element that is the source anchor of a hyperlink whose target’s absolute URL matches the element’s own document URL. If the hyperlink’s target includes a fragment URL, then the fragment URL of the current URL must also match; if it does not, then the fragment URL portion of the current URL is not taken into account in the comparison.

nav :local-link { text-decoration: none; } 

Note: The current URL of a page can change as a result of user actions such as activating a link targeting a different fragment within the same page; or by use of the pushState API; as well as by the more obvious actions of navigating to a different page or following a redirect (which could be initiated by protocols such as HTTP, markup instructions such as <meta http-equiv="...">, or scripting instructions ). UAs must ensure that :local-link, as well as the :target and :target-within pseudo-classes below, respond correctly to all such changes in state.

8.4. The Target Pseudo-class: :target

In some document languages, the document’s URL can further point to specific elements within the document via the URL’s fragment. The elements pointed to in this way are the target elements of the document.

The :target pseudo-class matches the document’s target elements. If the document’s URL has no fragment identifier, then the document has no target elements.

p.note:target 

:target { color : red }
:target::before { content : url(target.png) }

8.5. The Target Container Pseudo-class: :target-within

The :target-within pseudo-class applies to any element to which the :target pseudo-class applies as well as to any element whose descendant in the flat tree (including non-element nodes, such as text nodes) matches the conditions for matching :target.

8.6. The Reference Element Pseudo-class: :scope

In some contexts, selectors are matched with respect to one or more scoping roots, such as when calling the querySelector() method in [DOM]. The :scope pseudo-class represents this scoping root, and may be either a true element or a virtual one (such as a DocumentFragment).

If there is no scoping root then :scope represents the root of the document (equivalent to :root). Specifications intending for this pseudo-class to match specific elements rather than the document’s root element must define their scoping root(s).

A virtual scoping root is some object representing the root of a document fragment, and can be used in selector patterns to represent other elements’ relationships to this scoping root, acting as the parent of any root elements in the document fragment it represents. A virtual scoping root is featureless and cannot be the subject of the selector.

9. User Action Pseudo-classes

Interactive user interfaces sometimes change the rendering in response to user actions. Selectors provides several user action pseudo-classes for the selection of an element the user is acting on. (In non-interactive user agents, these pseudo-classes are valid, but never match any element.)

These pseudo-classes are not mutually exclusive. An element can match several such pseudo-classes at the same time.

a:hover   /* user hovers over the link */
a:focus   /* user focuses the link     */

a:focus:hover
/* user hovers over the link while it’s focused */

Note: The specifics of hit-testing, necessary to know when several of the pseudo-classes defined in this section apply, are not yet defined, but will be in the future.

9.1. The Pointer Hover Pseudo-class: :hover

The :hover pseudo-class applies while the user designates an element (or pseudo-element) with a pointing device, but does not necessarily activate it. For example, a visual user agent could apply this pseudo-class when the cursor (mouse pointer) hovers over a box generated by the element. Interactive user agents that cannot detect hovering due to hardware limitations (e.g., a pen device that does not detect hovering) are still conforming; the selector will simply never match in such a UA.

An element also matches :hover if one of its descendants in the flat tree (including non-element nodes, such as text nodes) matches the above conditions.

Document languages may define additional ways in which an element can match :hover. For example, [HTML5] defines a labeled control element as matching :hover when its label is hovered.

Note: Since the :hover state can apply to an element because its child is designated by a pointing device, it is possible for :hover to apply to an element that is not underneath the pointing device.

9.2. The Activation Pseudo-class: :active

The :active pseudo-class applies while an element is being “activated” by the user, as defined by the host language; for example, while a hyperlink is being triggered.

In addition, the :active pseudo-class applies while any generated box of any element (or pseudo-element) is being actively indicated by a pointing device (in the “down” state), e.g. between the time the user presses the primary mouse button and releases it, or while a finger is pressing on a touchscreen.

Note: [HTML5] defines specific conditions for HTML elements to be activated .

An element also matches :active if one of its descendants in the flat tree (including non-element nodes, such as text nodes) matches the above conditions.

9.3. The Input Focus Pseudo-class: :focus

The :focus pseudo-class applies while an element (or pseudo-element) has the focus (accepts keyboard or other forms of input).

There may be document language or implementation specific limits on which elements can acquire :focus. For example, [HTML] defines a list of focusable areas.

Document languages may define additional ways in which an element can match :focus, except that the :focus pseudo-class must not automatically propagate to the parent element—​see :focus-within if matching on the parent is desired. (:focus may still apply to the parent element if made to propagate due to other mechanisms, but not merely due to being the parent.)

There’s a desire from authors to propagate :focus from a form control to its associated label element; the main objection seems to be implementation difficulty. See CSSWG issue (CSS) and WHATWG issue (HTML).

9.4. The Focus-Indicated Pseudo-class: :focus-visible

While the :focus pseudo-class always matches the currently-focused element, UAs only sometimes visibly indicate focus (such as by drawing a “focus ring”), instead using a variety of heuristics to visibly indicate the focus only when it would be most helpful to the user. The :focus-visible pseudo-class matches a focused element (or pseudo-element) in these situations only, allowing authors to change the appearance of the focus indicator without changing when a focus indicator appears.

:root {
  --focus-gold: #ffbf47;
}

:focus-visible  {
  outline: 3px solid var(--focus-gold);
}

a:focus-visible {
  background-color: var(--focus-gold);
}

User agents should also use :focus-visible to specify the default focus style, so that authors using :focus-visible will not also need to disable the default :focus style.

9.5. The Focus Container Pseudo-class: :focus-within

The :focus-within pseudo-class applies to any element (or pseudo-element) for which the :focus pseudo-class applies, as well as to an element (or pseudo-element) whose descendant in the flat tree (including non-element nodes, such as text nodes) matches the conditions for matching :focus.

10. Time-dimensional Pseudo-classes

These pseudo-classes classify elements with respect to the currently-displayed or active position in some timeline, such as during speech rendering of a document, or during the display of a video using WebVTT to render subtitles.

CSS does not define this timeline; the host language must do so. If there is no timeline defined for an element, these pseudo-classes must not match the element.

Note: Ancestors of a :current element are also :current, but ancestors of a :past or :future element are not necessarily :past or :future as well. A given element matches at most one of :current, :past, or :future.

10.1. The Current-element Pseudo-class: :current

The :current pseudo-class represents the element, or an ancestor of the element, that is currently being displayed.

Its alternate form :current(), like :is(), takes a list of compound selectors as its argument: it represents the :current element that matches the argument or, if that does not match, the innermost ancestor of the :current element that does. (If neither the :current element nor its ancestors match the argument, then the selector does not represent anything.)

:current(p, li, dt, dd) {
  background: yellow;
}

10.2. The Past-element Pseudo-class: :past

The :past pseudo-class represents any element that is defined to occur entirely prior to a :current element. For example, the WebVTT spec defines the :past pseudo-class relative to the current playback position of a media element. If a time-based order of elements is not defined by the document language, then this represents any element that is a (possibly indirect) previous sibling of a :current element.

10.3. The Future-element Pseudo-class: :future

The :future pseudo-class represents any element that is defined to occur entirely after a :current element. For example, the WebVTT spec defines the :future pseudo-class relative to the current playback position of a media element. If a time-based order of elements is not defined by the document language, then this represents any element that is a (possibly indirect) next sibling of a :current element.

11. Resource State Pseudo-classes

The pseudo-classes in this section apply to elements that represent loaded resources, particularly images/videos, and allow authors to select them based on some quality of their state.

11.1. Media Playback State: the :playing, :paused, and :seeking pseudo-classes

The :playing pseudo-class represents an element that is capable of being “played” or “paused”, when that element is “playing”. (This includes both when the element is explicitly playing, and when it’s temporarily stopped for some reason not connected to user intent, but will automatically resume when that reason is resolved, such as a “buffering” or “stalled” state.)

The :paused pseudo-class represents an element that is capable of being “played” or “paused”, when that element is “paused” (i.e. not ”playing”). (This includes both an explicit “paused” state, and other non-playing states like “loaded, hasn’t been activated yet”, etc.)

The :seeking pseudo-class represents an element that is capable of ”seeking” when that element is ”seeking”. (For the audio and video elements of HTML, see HTML § 4.8.11.9 Seeking.)

11.2. Media Loading State: the :buffering and :stalled pseudo-classes

The :buffering pseudo-class represents an element that is capable of being “played” or “paused”, when that element cannot continue playing because it is actively attempting to obtain media data but has not yet obtained enough data to resume playback. (Note that the element is still considered to be “playing” when it is “buffering”. Whenever :buffering matches an element, :playing also matches the element.)

The :stalled pseudo-class represents an element when that element cannot continue playing because it is actively attempting to obtain media data but it has failed to receive any data for some amount of time. For the audio and video elements of HTML, this amount of time is the media element stall timeout. [HTML] (Note that, like with the :buffering pseudo-class, the element is still considered to be “playing” when it is “stalled”. Whenever :stalled matches an element, :playing also matches the element.)

11.3. Sound State: the :muted and :volume-locked pseudo-classes

The :muted pseudo-class represents an element that is capable of making sound, but is currently “muted“ (forced silent). (For the audio and video elements of HTML, see muted. [HTML])

The :volume-locked pseudo-class represents an element that is capable of making sound, and currently has its volume "locked" by the UA or the user, so the page author cannot change it. (For the audio and video elements of HTML, see the algorithm for setting the element’s effective media volume. [HTML])

12. Element Display State Pseudo-classes

12.1. Collapse State: the :open and :closed pseudo-class

The :open pseudo-class represents an element that has both “open” and “closed” states, and which is currently in the “open” state.

The :closed pseudo-class represents an element that has both “open” and “closed” states, and which is currently in the closed state.

Exactly what “open” and “closed” mean is host-language specific, but exemplified by elements such as HTML’s details, select, and dialog elements, all of which can be toggled “open” to display more content (or any content at all, in the case of dialog).

Note: Being “open” or “closed” is a semantic state. An element not currently being displayed (for example, one that has visibility: collapse, or belongs to a display: none subtree) can still be “open” and will match :open.

12.2. Modal (Exclusive Interaction) State: the :modal pseudo-class

The :modal pseudo-class represents an element which is in a state that excludes all interaction with elements outside it until it has been dismissed. Multiple elements can be :modal simultaneously, with only one of them active (able to receive input).

12.3. Fullscreen Presentation State: the :fullscreen pseudo-class

The :fullscreen pseudo-class represents an element which is displayed in a mode that takes up most (usually all) of the screen, such as that defined by the Fullscreen API. [FULLSCREEN]

12.4. Picture-in-Picture Presentation State: the :picture-in-picture pseudo-class

The :picture-in-picture pseudo-class represents an element which is displayed in a mode that takes up most (usually all) of the viewport, and whose viewport is confined to part of the screen while being displayed over other content, for example when using the Picture-in-Picture API. [picture-in-picture]

13. The Input Pseudo-classes

The pseudo-classes in this section mostly apply to elements that take user input, such as HTML’s input element.

13.1. Input Control States

13.1.1. The :enabled and :disabled Pseudo-classes

The :enabled pseudo-class represents user interface elements that are in an enabled state; such elements must have a corresponding disabled state.

Conversely, the :disabled pseudo-class represents user interface elements that are in a disabled state; such elements must have a corresponding enabled state.

What constitutes an enabled state, a disabled state, and a user interface element is host-language-dependent. In a typical document most elements will be neither :enabled nor :disabled. For example, [HTML5] defines non-disabled interactive elements to be :enabled, and any such elements that are explicitly disabled to be :disabled.

Note: CSS properties that might affect a user’s ability to interact with a given user interface element do not affect whether it matches :enabled or :disabled; e.g., the display and visibility properties have no effect on the enabled/disabled state of an element.

13.1.2. The Mutability Pseudo-classes: :read-only and :read-write

An element matches :read-write if it is user-alterable, as defined by the document language. Otherwise, it is :read-only.

For example, in [HTML5] a non-disabled non-readonly <input> element is :read-write, as is any element with the contenteditable attribute set to the true state.

13.1.3. The Placeholder-shown Pseudo-class: :placeholder-shown

Input elements can sometimes show placeholder text as a hint to the user on what to type in. See, for example, the placeholder attribute in [HTML5]. The :placeholder-shown pseudo-class matches an input element that is showing such placeholder text, whether that text is given by an attribute or a real element, or is otherwise implied by the UA.

13.1.4. The Automatic Input Pseudo-class: :autofill

The :autofill pseudo-class represents input elements that have been automatically filled by the user agent, and have not been subsequently altered by the user.

13.1.5. The Default-option Pseudo-class: :default

The :default pseudo-class applies to the one or more UI elements that are the default among a set of similar elements. Typically applies to context menu items, buttons and select lists/menus.

One example is the default submit button among a set of buttons. Another example is the default option from a popup menu. In a select-many group (such as for pizza toppings), multiple elements can match :default. For example, [HTML5] defines that :default matches the “default button” in a form, the initially-selected <option>(s) in a <select>, and a few other elements.

13.2. Input Value States

13.2.1. The Selected-option Pseudo-class: :checked

Radio and checkbox elements can be toggled by the user. Some menu items are “checked” when the user selects them. When such elements are toggled “on” the :checked pseudo-class applies. For example, [HTML5] defines that checked checkboxes, radio buttons, and selected <option> elements match :checked.

While the :checked pseudo-class is dynamic in nature, and can altered by user action, since it can also be based on the presence of semantic attributes in the document (such as the selected and checked attributes in [HTML5]), it applies to all media.

input[type=checkbox]:not(:checked)

13.2.2. The Indeterminate-value Pseudo-class: :indeterminate

The :indeterminate pseudo-class applies to UI elements whose value is in an indeterminate state. For example, radio and checkbox elements can be toggled between checked and unchecked states, but are sometimes in an indeterminate state, neither checked nor unchecked. Similarly a progress meter can be in an indeterminate state when the percent completion is unknown. For example, [HTML5] defines how checkboxes can be made to match :indeterminate.

Like the :checked pseudo-class, :indeterminate applies to all media. Components of a radio-group initialized with no pre-selected choice, for example, would be :indeterminate even in a static display.

13.3. Input Value-checking

13.3.1. The Empty-Value Pseudo-class: :blank

The :blank pseudo-class applies to user-input elements whose input value is empty (consists of the empty string or otherwise null input).

Note: This selector is at-risk.

13.3.2. The Validity Pseudo-classes: :valid and :invalid

An element is :valid or :invalid when its contents or value is, respectively, valid or invalid with respect to data validity semantics defined by the document language (e.g. [XFORMS11] or [HTML5]). An element which lacks data validity semantics is neither :valid nor :invalid.

Note: There is a difference between an element which has no constraints, and thus would always be :valid, and one which has no data validity semantics at all, and thus is neither :valid nor :invalid. In HTML, for example, an <input type="text"> element may have no constraints, but a p element has no validity semantics at all, and so it never matches either of these pseudo-classes.

13.3.3. The Range Pseudo-classes: :in-range and :out-of-range

The :in-range and :out-of-range pseudo-classes apply only to elements that have range limitations. An element is :in-range or :out-of-range when the value that the element is bound to is in range or out of range with respect to its range limits as defined by the document language. An element that lacks data range limits or is not a form control is neither :in-range nor :out-of-range. E.g. a slider element with a value of 11 presented as a slider control that only represents the values from 1-10 is :out-of-range. Another example is a menu element with a value of "E" that happens to be presented in a popup menu that only has choices "A", "B" and "C".

13.3.4. The Optionality Pseudo-classes: :required and :optional

A form element is :required or :optional if a value for it is, respectively, required or optional before the form it belongs to can be validly submitted. Elements that are not form elements are neither required nor optional.

13.3.5. The User-interaction Pseudo-classes: :user-valid and :user-invalid

The :user-invalid and the :user-valid pseudo-classes represent an element with incorrect or correct input, respectively, but only after the user has significantly interacted with it. Their purpose is to help the user identify mistakes in their input.

These pseudo-classes must at least match their respective elements after the user has attempted to submit the form and before the user has interacted again with the input element or reset the form. They may also match at other times, as would be appropriate for highlighting an error to the user. For example, :user-invalid could start matching an :invalid input element once the user has changed its value and focus has moved to another element; or stop matching only after the user has successfully corrected the input.

Host languages may define more precise matching rules or defer to platform conventions; otherwise the exact behavior is UA-defined. Regardless, the :user-invalid pseudo-class must only match :invalid elements; and the :user-valid pseudo-class must only match :valid elements. See the HTML specification for the specific rules pertaining to HTML elements. [HTML]

<form>
  <label>
    Volume:
    <input name='vol' type=number min=0 max=10 value=11>
  </label>
  ...
</form>

14. Tree-Structural pseudo-classes

Selectors introduces the concept of structural pseudo-classes to permit selection based on extra information that lies in the document tree but cannot be represented by other simple selectors or combinators.

Standalone text and other non-element nodes are not counted when calculating the position of an element in the list of children of its parent. When calculating the position of an element in the list of children of its parent, the index numbering starts at 1.

The structural pseudo-classes only apply to elements in the document tree; they must never match pseudo-elements.

14.1. :root pseudo-class

The :root pseudo-class represents an element that is the root of the document.

For example, in a DOM document, the :root pseudo-class matches the document element. In HTML, this will be the html element (unless scripting has been used to modify the document).

14.2. :empty pseudo-class

The :empty pseudo-class represents an element that has no children except, optionally, document white space characters. In terms of the document tree, only element nodes and content nodes (such as [DOM] text nodes, and entity references) whose data has a non-zero length must be considered as affecting emptiness; comments, processing instructions, and other nodes must not affect whether an element is considered empty or not.

<p></p>
<p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>

<div>text</div>
<div><p></p></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><p>bla</p></div>
<div>this is not <p>:empty</p></div>

Note: In Level 2 and Level 3 of Selectors, :empty did not match elements that contained only white space. This was changed so that that—​given white space is largely collapsible in HTML and is therefore used for source code formatting, and especially because elements with omitted end tags are likely to absorb such white space into their DOM text contents—​elements which authors perceive of as empty can be selected by this selector, as they expect.

14.3. Child-indexed Pseudo-classes

The pseudo-classes defined in this section select elements based on their index amongst their inclusive siblings.

Note: Selectors 3 described these selectors as selecting elements based on their index in the child list of their parents. (This description survives in the name of this very section, and the names of several of the pseudo-classes.) As there was no reason to exclude them from matching elements without parents, or with non-element parents, they have been rephrased to refer to an element’s relative index amongst its siblings.

14.3.1. :nth-child() pseudo-class

The :nth-child(An+B [of S]? ) pseudo-class notation represents elements that are among An+Bth elements from the list composed of their inclusive siblings that match the selector list S, which is a <complex-real-selector-list>. If S is omitted, it defaults to *|*.

The An+B notation and its interpretation are defined in CSS Syntax 3 § 6 The An+B microsyntax; it represents any index i = An + B for any non-negative integer n.

Note: For these purposes, the list of elements is 1-indexed; that is, the first child of an element has index 1, and will be matched by :nth-child(2n+1), because when n=0 the expression evaluates to 1.

For example, this selector could address every other row in a table, and could be used to alternate the color of paragraph text in a cycle of four.

:nth-child(even)   /* represents the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc elements
:nth-child(10n-1)  /* represents the 9th, 19th, 29th, etc elements */
:nth-child(10n+9)  /* Same */
:nth-child(10n+-1) /* Syntactically invalid, and would be ignored */

Note: The specificity of the :nth-child() pseudo-class is the specificity of a single pseudo-class plus, if S is specified, the specificity of the most specific complex selector in S. See § 17 Calculating a selector’s specificity. Thus S:nth-child(An+B) and :nth-child(An+B of S) have the exact same specificity, although they do differ in behavior (see example below).

:nth-child(-n+3 of li.important)

li.important:nth-child(-n+3)

tr {
  background: white;
}
tr:nth-child(even) {
  background: silver;
}

tr {
  background: white;
}
tr:nth-child(even of :not([hidden])) {
  background: silver;
}

14.3.2. :nth-last-child() pseudo-class

The :nth-last-child(An+B [of S]? ) pseudo-class notation represents elements that are among An+Bth elements from the list composed of their inclusive siblings that match the selector list S, counting backwards from the end. S is <complex-real-selector-list>. If S is omitted, it defaults to *|*.

Note: The specificity of the :nth-last-child() pseudo-class, like the :nth-child() pseudo-class, combines the specificity of a regular pseudo-class with that of its selector argument S. See § 17 Calculating a selector’s specificity.

The CSS Syntax Module [CSS3SYN] defines the An+B notation.

tr:nth-last-child(-n+2)    /* represents the two last rows of an HTML table */

foo:nth-last-child(odd)    /* represents all odd foo elements in their parent element,
                              counting from the last one */

14.3.3. :first-child pseudo-class

The :first-child pseudo-class represents an element that if first among its inclusive siblings. Same as :nth-child(1).

div > p:first-child

<p> The last P before the note.</p>
<div class="note">
   <p> The first P inside the note.</p>
</div>

<p> The last P before the note.</p>
<div class="note">
   <h2> Note </h2>
   <p> The first P inside the note.</p>
</div>

* > a:first-child /* a is first child of any element */
a:first-child /* Same (assuming a is not the root element) */

14.3.4. :last-child pseudo-class

The :last-child pseudo-class represents an element that is last among its inclusive siblings. Same as :nth-last-child(1).

ol > li:last-child

14.3.5. :only-child pseudo-class

The :only-child pseudo-class represents an element that has no siblings. Same as :first-child:last-child or :nth-child(1):nth-last-child(1), but with a lower specificity.

14.4. Typed Child-indexed Pseudo-classes

The pseudo-classes in this section are similar to the Child Index Pseudo-classes, but they resolve based on an element’s index among elements of the same type (tag name) in their sibling list.

14.4.1. :nth-of-type() pseudo-class

The :nth-of-type(An+B) pseudo-class notation represents the same elements that would be matched by :nth-child(|An+B| of S), where S is a type selector and namespace prefix matching the element in question. For example, when considering whether an HTML img element matches this pseudo-class, the S in question is html|img (assuming an appropriate html namespace is declared).

img:nth-of-type(2n+1) { float: right; }
img:nth-of-type(2n) { float: left; }

Note: If the type of the element is known ahead of time, this pseudo-class is equivalent to using :nth-child() with a type selector. That is, img:nth-of-type(2) is equivalent to *:nth-child(2 of img).

14.4.2. :nth-last-of-type() pseudo-class

The :nth-last-of-type(An+B) pseudo-class notation represents the same elements that would be matched by :nth-last-child(|An+B| of S), where S is a type selector and namespace prefix matching the element in question. For example, when considering whether an HTML img element matches this pseudo-class, the S in question is html|img (assuming an appropriate html namespace is declared).

body > h2:nth-of-type(n+2):nth-last-of-type(n+2) 

body > h2:not(:first-of-type):not(:last-of-type) 

14.4.3. :first-of-type pseudo-class

The :first-of-type pseudo-class represents the same element as :nth-of-type(1).

dl dt:first-of-type

<dl>
  <dt>gigogne</dt>
  <dd>
    <dl>
      <dt>fusée</dt>
      <dd>multistage rocket</dd>
      <dt>table</dt>
      <dd>nest of tables</dd>
    </dl>
  </dd>
</dl>

14.4.4. :last-of-type pseudo-class

The :last-of-type pseudo-class represents the same element as :nth-last-of-type(1).

tr > td:last-of-type

14.4.5. :only-of-type pseudo-class

The :only-of-type pseudo-class represents the same element as :first-of-type:last-of-type.

15. Combinators

15.1. Descendant combinator ( )

At times, authors may want selectors to describe an element that is the descendant of another element in the document tree (e.g., "an em element that is contained within an H1 element"). The descendant combinator expresses such a relationship.

A descendant combinator is whitespace that separates two compound selectors.

A selector of the form A B represents an element B that is an arbitrary descendant of some ancestor element A.

h1 em

<h1>This <span class="myclass">headline
is <em>very</em> important</span></h1>

div * p

div p *[href]

15.2. Child combinator (>)

A child combinator describes a childhood relationship between two elements. A child combinator is made of the "greater-than sign" (U+003E, >) code point and separates two compound selectors.

body > p

div ol>li p

For information on selecting the first child of an element, please see the section on the :first-child pseudo-class above.

15.3. Next-sibling combinator (+)

The next-sibling combinator is made of the “plus sign” (U+002B, +) code point that separates two compound selectors. The elements represented by the two compound selectors share the same parent in the document tree and the element represented by the first compound selector immediately precedes the element represented by the second one. Non-element nodes (e.g. text between elements) are ignored when considering the adjacency of elements.

math + p

h1.opener + h2

15.4. Subsequent-sibling combinator (~)

The subsequent-sibling combinator is made of the "tilde" (U+007E, ~) code point that separates two compound selectors. The elements represented by the two compound selectors share the same parent in the document tree and the element represented by the first compound selector precedes (not necessarily immediately) the element represented by the second one.

h1 ~ pre

<h1>Definition of the function a</h1>
<p>Function a(x) has to be applied to all figures in the table.</p>
<pre>function a(x) = 12x/13.5</pre>

16. Grid-Structural Selectors

The double-association of a cell in a 2D grid (to its row and column) cannot be represented by parentage in a hierarchical markup language. Only one of those associations can be represented hierarchically: the other must be explicitly or implicitly defined in the document language semantics. In both HTML and DocBook, two of the most common hierarchical markup languages, the markup is row-primary (that is, the row associations are represented hierarchically); the columns must be implied. To be able to represent such implied column-based relationships, the column combinator and the :nth-col() and :nth-last-col() pseudo-classes are defined. In a column-primary format, these pseudo-classes match against row associations instead.

16.1. Column combinator (||)

The column combinator, which consists of two pipes (||) represents the relationship of a column element to a cell element belonging to the column it represents. Column membership is determined based on the semantics of the document language only: whether and how the elements are presented is not considered. If a cell element belongs to more than one column, it is represented by a selector indicating membership in any of those columns.

col.selected || td {
  background: gray;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
}

<table>
  <col span="2">
  <col class="selected">
  <tr><td>A <td>B <td>C
  <tr><td colspan="2">D <td>E
  <tr><td>F <td colspan="2">G
</table>

16.2. :nth-col() pseudo-class

The :nth-col(An+B) pseudo-class notation represents a cell element belonging to a column that has An+B-1 columns before it, for any positive integer or zero value of n. Column membership is determined based on the semantics of the document language only: whether and how the elements are presented is not considered. If a cell element belongs to more than one column, it is represented by a selector indicating any of those columns.

The CSS Syntax Module [CSS3SYN] defines the An+B notation.

16.3. :nth-last-col() pseudo-class

The :nth-last-col(An+B) pseudo-class notation represents a cell element belonging to a column that has An+B-1 columns after it, for any positive integer or zero value of n. Column membership is determined based on the semantics of the document language only: whether and how the elements are presented is not considered. If a cell element belongs to more than one column, it is represented by a selector indicating any of those columns.

The CSS Syntax Module [CSS3SYN] defines the An+B notation.

17. Calculating a selector’s specificity

A selector’s specificity is calculated for a given element as follows:

• count the number of ID selectors in the selector (= A)
• count the number of class selectors, attributes selectors, and pseudo-classes in the selector (= B)
• count the number of type selectors and pseudo-elements in the selector (= C)
• ignore the universal selector

If the selector is a selector list, this number is calculated for each selector in the list. For a given matching process against the list, the specificity in effect is that of the most specific selector in the list that matches.

A few pseudo-classes provide “evaluation contexts” for other selectors, and so have their specificity defined specially:

• The specificity of an :is(), :not(), or :has() pseudo-class is replaced by the specificity of the most specific complex selector in its selector list argument.
• Analogously, the specificity of an :nth-child() or :nth-last-child() selector is the specificity of the pseudo-class itself (counting as one pseudo-class selector) plus the specificity of the most specific complex selector in its selector list argument (if any).
• The specificity of a :where() pseudo-class is replaced by zero.

Specificities are compared by comparing the three components in order: the specificity with a larger A value is more specific; if the two A values are tied, then the specificity with a larger B value is more specific; if the two B values are also tied, then the specificity with a larger C value is more specific; if all the values are tied, the two specificities are equal.

Due to storage limitations, implementations may have limitations on the size of A, B, or C. If so, values higher than the limit must be clamped to that limit, and not overflow.

*               /* a=0 b=0 c=0 */
LI              /* a=0 b=0 c=1 */
UL LI           /* a=0 b=0 c=2 */
UL OL+LI        /* a=0 b=0 c=3 */
H1 + *[REL=up]  /* a=0 b=1 c=1 */
UL OL LI.red    /* a=0 b=1 c=3 */
LI.red.level    /* a=0 b=2 c=1 */
#x34y           /* a=1 b=0 c=0 */
#s12:not(FOO)   /* a=1 b=0 c=1 */
.foo :is(.bar, #baz)
                /* a=1 b=1 c=0 */

Note: Repeated occurrences of the same simple selector are allowed and do increase specificity.

Note: The specificity of the styles specified in an HTML style attribute is described in CSS Style Attributes. [CSSSTYLEATTR]

18. Grammar

Selectors are parsed according to the following grammar:

<selector-list> = <complex-selector-list>

<complex-selector-list> = <complex-selector>#
<complex-real-selector-list> = <complex-real-selector>#

<compound-selector-list> = <compound-selector>#

<simple-selector-list> = <simple-selector>#

<relative-selector-list> = <relative-selector>#
<relative-real-selector-list> = <relative-real-selector>#


<complex-selector> = <complex-selector-unit> [ <combinator>? <complex-selector-unit> ]*
<complex-selector-unit> = [ <compound-selector>? <pseudo-compound-selector>* ]!
<complex-real-selector> = <compound-selector> [ <combinator>? <compound-selector> ]*

<relative-selector> = <combinator>? <complex-selector>
<relative-real-selector> = <combinator>? <complex-real-selector>

<compound-selector> = [ <type-selector>? <subclass-selector>* ]!
<pseudo-compound-selector> =  <pseudo-element-selector> <pseudo-class-selector>*

<simple-selector> = <type-selector> | <subclass-selector>


<combinator> = '>' | '+' | '~' | [ '|' '|' ]

<wq-name> = <ns-prefix>? <ident-token>
<ns-prefix> = [ <ident-token> | '*' ]? '|'

<type-selector> = <wq-name> | <ns-prefix>? '*'

<subclass-selector> = <id-selector> | <class-selector> |
                      <attribute-selector> | <pseudo-class-selector>

<id-selector> = <hash-token>

<class-selector> = '.' <ident-token>

<attribute-selector> = '[' <wq-name> ']' |
    '[' <wq-name> <attr-matcher> [ <string-token> | <ident-token> ] <attr-modifier>? ']'
<attr-matcher> = [ '~' | '|' | '^' | '$' | '*' ]? '='
<attr-modifier> = i | s

<pseudo-class-selector> = ':' <ident-token> |
                          ':' <function-token> <any-value> ')'

<pseudo-element-selector> = ':' <pseudo-class-selector> | <legacy-pseudo-element-selector>
<legacy-pseudo-element-selector> =  ':' [before | after | first-line | first-letter]

In interpreting the above grammar, the following rules apply:

• White space is forbidden:

  • Between any of the top-level components of a <compound-selector> or <complex-selector-unit> (that is, forbidden between the <type-selector> and <subclass-selector>, or between the <pseudo-element-selector> and <pseudo-class-selector>, etc).

  • Between any of the components of a <type-selector> or a <class-selector>.

  • Between the ':'s, or between the ':' and <ident-token> or <function-token>, of a <pseudo-element-selector> or a <pseudo-class-selector>.

  • Between any of the components of a <wq-name>.

  • Between the components of an <attr-matcher>.

  • Between the <compound-selector> or <pseudo-compound-selector>s in a <complex-selector-unit>

  • Between the components of a <combinator>.

  Whitespace is required between two <complex-selector-unit>s if the <combinator> between them is omitted. (This indicates the descendant combinator is being used.)

• In <id-selector>, the <hash-token>’s value must be an identifier.
• The <pseudo-class-selector> production excludes the <legacy-pseudo-element-selector> production. (That is, :before/etc must never be parsed as a pseudo-class, even if doing so would cause the selector to become valid due to, for example, other simple selectors following it.)

Note: A selector is also subject to a variety of more specific syntactic constraints, and adherence to the grammar above is necessary but not sufficient for the selector to be considered valid. See § 3.9 Invalid Selectors and Error Handling for additional rules for parsing selectors.

Note: In general, a <pseudo-element-selector> is only valid if placed at the end of the last <compound-selector> in a <complex-selector>. In some circumstances, however, it can be followed by more <pseudo-element-selector>s or <pseudo-class-selector>s; but these are specified on a case-by-case basis. (For example, the user action pseudo-classes are allowed after any pseudo-element, and the tree-abiding pseudo-elements are allowed after the ::slotted() pseudo-element.)

The four Level 2 pseudo-elements (::before, ::after, ::first-line, and ::first-letter) may, for legacy reasons, be written with only a single ":" character at their front, making them resemble a <pseudo-class-selector>.

18.1. <forgiving-selector-list> and <forgiving-relative-selector-list>

For legacy reasons, the general behavior of a selector list is that if any selector in the list fails to parse (because it uses new or UA-specific selector features, for instance), the entire selector list becomes invalid. This can make it hard to write CSS that uses new selectors and still works correctly in older user agents.

The <forgiving-selector-list> production instead parses each selector in the list individually, simply ignoring ones that fail to parse, so the remaining selectors can still be used.

Note: Style rules still use the normal, unforgiving selector list behavior. <forgiving-selector-list> is used in :is() and :where() only. Although it does have some minor implications on specificity, wrapping a style rule’s selector in :is() effectively "upgrades" it to become forgiving, so long as it doesn’t contain any pseudo-elements (which aren’t valid in :is() or :where()).

Syntactically, <forgiving-selector-list> is equivalent to <any-value>?. It is then parsed as a forgiving selector list to obtain its actual value.

Any items in a <forgiving-selector-list> that are invalid (whether explicitly, by using unknown selectors or syntax, or merely contextually, using known syntax but in an invalid context) must be treated as having zero specificity.

Note: <forgiving-selector-list> is intentionally used only in :is() and :where(), not in any other selector that takes a selector argument.

19. API Hooks

To aid in the writing of specs that use Selectors concepts, this section defines several API hooks that can be invoked by other specifications.

Are these still necessary now that we have more rigorous definitions for match and invalid selector? Nouns are a lot easier to coordinate across specification than predicates, and details like the exact order of elements returned from querySelector seem to make more sense being defined in the DOM specification than in Selectors.

19.1. Parse A Selector

This section defines how to parse a selector from a string source. It returns either a complex selector list, or failure.

1. Let selector be the result of parsing source as a <selector-list>. If this returns failure, it’s an invalid selector; return failure.
2. If selector is an invalid selector for any other reason (such as, for example, containing an undeclared namespace prefix), return failure.
3. Otherwise, return selector.

19.2. Parse A Relative Selector

This section defines how to parse a relative selector from a string source. It returns either a complex selector list, or failure.

1. Let selector be the result of parsing source as a <relative-selector-list>. If this returns failure, it’s an invalid selector; return failure.
2. If selector is an invalid selector for any other reason (such as, for example, containing an undeclared namespace prefix), return failure.
3. Otherwise, return selector.

19.3. Match a Selector Against an Element

This section defines how to match a selector against an element.

APIs using this algorithm must provide a selector and an element.

Callers may optionally provide:

• one or more scoping roots, for resolving the :scope pseudo-class against.

This algorithm returns either success or failure.

For each complex selector in the given selector (which is taken to be a list of complex selectors), match the complex selector against element, as described in the following paragraph. If the matching returns success for any complex selector, then the algorithm return success; otherwise it returns failure.

To match a complex selector against an element, process it compound selector at a time, in right-to-left order. This process is defined recursively as follows:

• If any simple selectors in the rightmost compound selector does not match the element, return failure.
• Otherwise, if there is only one compound selector in the complex selector, return success.
• Otherwise, consider all possible elements that could be related to this element by the rightmost combinator. If the operation of matching the selector consisting of this selector with the rightmost compound selector and rightmost combinator removed against any one of these elements returns success, then return success. Otherwise, return failure.

19.4. Match a Selector Against a Pseudo-element

This section defines how to match a selector against a pseudo-element.

APIs using this algorithm must provide a selector and a pseudo-element. They may optionally provide the same things they may optionally provide to the algorithm to match a selector against an element.

This algorithm returns success or failure.

For each complex selector in the given selector, if both:

• the rightmost simple selector in the complex selector matches pseudo-element, and
• the result of running match a complex selector against an element on the remainder of the complex selector (with just the rightmost simple selector of its rightmost complex selector removed), pseudo-element’s corresponding element, and any optional parameters provided to this algorithm returns success,

Otherwise (that is, if this doesn’t happen for any of the complex selectors in selector), return failure.

19.5. Match a Selector Against a Tree

This section defines how to match a selector against a tree.

APIs using this algorithm must provide a selector, and one or more root elements indicating the subtrees that will be searched by the selector. All of the root elements must share the same root, or else calling this algorithm is invalid.

They may optionally provide:

• One or more scoping roots indicating the selector is scoped.
• A list of pseudo-elements that are allowed to show up in the match list. If not specified, this defaults to allowing all pseudo-elements.

  Only the tree-abiding pseudo-elements are really handled in any way remotely like this.

This algorithm returns a (possibly empty) list of elements.

1. Start with a list of candidate elements, which are the root elements and all of their descendant elements, sorted in shadow-including tree order, unless otherwise specified.
2. If scoping root were provided, then remove from the candidate elements any elements that are not descendants of at least one scoping root.
3. Initialize the selector match list to empty.
4. For each element in the set of candidate elements:
   1. If the result of match a selector against an element for element and selector is success, add element to the selector match list.
   2. For each possible pseudo-element associated with element that is one of the pseudo-elements allowed to show up in the match list, if the result of match a selector against a pseudo-element for the pseudo-element and selector is success, add the pseudo-element to the selector match list.

      The relative position of pseudo-elements in selector match list is undefined. There’s not yet a context that exposes this information, but we need to decide on something eventually, before something is exposed.

Appendix A: Guidance on Mapping Source Documents & Data to an Element Tree

This section is informative.

The element tree structure described by the DOM is powerful and useful, but generic enough to model pretty much any language that describes tree-based data (or even graph-based, with a suitable interpretation).

Some languages, like HTML, already have well-defined procedures for producing a DOM object from a resource. If a given language does not, such a procedure must be defined in order for Selectors to apply to documents in that language.

At minimum, the document language must define what maps to the DOM concept of an "element".

The primary one-to-many relationship between nodes—​parent/child in tree-based structures, element/neighbors in graph-based structures—​should be reflected as the child nodes of an element.

Other features of the element should be mapped to something that serves a similar purpose to the same feature in DOM:

type

If the elements in the document language have some notion of "type" as a basic distinguisher between different groups of elements, it should be reflected as the "type" feature.

If this "type" can be separated into a "basic" name and a "namespace" that groups names into higher-level groups, the latter should be reflected as the "namespace" feature. Otherwise, the element shouldn’t have a "namespace" feature, and the entire name should be reflected as the "type" feature.

id

If some aspect of the element functions as a unique identifier across the document, it should be mapped to the "id" feature.

Note: While HTML only allows an element to have a single ID, this should not be taken as a general restriction. The important quality of an ID is that each ID should be associated with a single element; a single element can validly have multiple IDs.

classes and attributes

Aspects of the element that are useful for identifying the element, but are not generally unique to elements within a document, should be mapped to the "class" or "attribute" features depending on if they’re something equivalent to a "label" (a string by itself) or a "property" (a name/value pair)

pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements

If any elements match any pseudo-classes or have any pseudo-elements, that must be explicitly defined.

Some pseudo-classes are *syntactical*, like :has() and :is(), and thus should always work. Need to indicate that somewhere. Probably the structural pseudos always work whenever the child list is ordered.

Appendix B: Obsolete but Required -webkit- Parsing Quirks for Web Compat

This appendix is normative.

Due to legacy Web-compat constraints, user agents expecting to parse Web documents must support the following features:

• :-webkit-autofill must be treated as a legacy selector alias of :autofill.

• All other pseudo-elements whose names begin with the string “-webkit-” (matched ASCII case-insensitively) and that are not functional notations must be treated as valid at parse time. (That is, ::-webkit-asdf is valid at parse time, but ::-webkit-jkl() is not.) If they’re not otherwise recognized and supported, they must be treated as matching nothing, and are unknown -webkit- pseudo-elements.

  Unknown -webkit- pseudo-elements must be serialized in ASCII lowercase.

  What’s this quirk about?

  Selectors have long had a behavior where a single unknown/invalid selector invalidates the entire selector list (rather than just invalidating the one complex selector it finds itself in). This is generally considered a legacy mistake by the WG, but can’t be fixed at this point, as too many stylesheets depend on this behavior, intentionally or not.

  One aspect of this is that use of vendor-specific selectors invalidates the entire selector in other user agents that don’t recognize them, and takes the entire style rule down with it. This has been used intentionally in the past—​in the severely-not-recommended practice of hiding style rules from some browsers by making them invalid in every other browser—​and unintentionally, with people styling an element and also applying those styles to a vendor-specific pseudo-element (such as the various input-related pseudos some browsers expose), not realizing that this hides the entire rule from other browsers.

  In addition to this more general reasoning, WebKit-derived user agents, such as Safari or Chrome, have an additional quirk related to their vendor-prefixed pseudo-elements, where any ::-webkit--prefixed selectors are considered valid at parse time. (This is probably a leftover quirk of an early CSS feature, since dropped, that intentionally treated all possible pseudo-elements as valid at parse time, in anticipation of a feature letting authors define their own pseudo-elements.)

  Similar to other legacy quirks, such as those documented in [QUIRKS], this particular vendor-specific oddity has become common enough that other user agents are seeing sites breaking due to them depending on it, accidentally or not. As such, since the quirk is in practical terms required to render the modern web correctly, specifying it and requiring it for all user agents ensures that today’s web pages are more likely to be correctly rendered in user agents both current and future.

  As usual with quirks, however, webpages intentionally relying on this will be met with shaming and derision from members of the CSSWG, and all right-thinking web developers.

20. Changes

20.1. Changes since the 7 May 2022 Working Draft

Significant changes since the 7 May 2022 Working Draft:

• Marked :blank as at-risk and removed the at-risk status from :read-write and :has()

• Added :open and :closed pseudo-classes. (Issue 7319)

• Disallowed pseudo-elements from :has() unless explicitly allowed by the pseudo-element’s definition. (Issue 7463)

• Disallowed nesting of :has(). (Issue 7344)

• Made :has() and the selector argument of :nth-child()/:nth-last-child() no longer forgiving. (Issue 7676)

• Defined matching of ::lang("") and of elements not tagged with a language. (Issue 6915)

• Untangled the concepts of "scoped" and "relative" selectors completely. (Issue 6399)

  • Removed "absolutize a selector" as well, and just defined relative selector matching in terms of the anchoring element.

• Reverted compound selector limitation on :nth-child(). (Issue 3760)

• Defined :-webkit-autofill legacy selector alias. (Issue 7474)

• Moved the legacy single-colon pseudo-element syntax into the grammar itself. (Issue 8122)

20.2. Changes since the 21 November 2018 Working Draft

Significant changes since the 21 November 2018 Working Draft:

• Removed the Selector profiles, marked :has() as optional and at-risk instead. (Issue 3925)
• Added § 3.6.4 Sub-pseudo-elements to define sub-pseudo-elements and related terminology.
• Added :defined. (Issue 2258)
• Added :modal. (Issue 6965)
• Added :fullscreen and :picture-in-picture. (Issue 3796)
• Added :seeking, :buffering, and :stalled media playback state pseudo-classes. (Issue 3821)
• Added :muted and :volume-locked sound state pseudo-classes. (Issue 3821 and Issue 3933)
• Added :autofill. (Issue 5775)
• Added :user-valid. (Discussion)
• Defined :is(), :where(), :has(), :nth-child(), and :nth-last-child() to not be themselves invalidated when containing an invalid selector. (Issue 3264)
• Limited selectors in :nth-child() and :nth-last-child() to compound selectors for now. (Issue 3760)
• Clarified case-sensitive string matching by referencing string identity as defined in [INFRA].
• Clarified that UA-provided placeholder text still triggers :placeholder-shown.
• Rewrote :focus-visible definition for clarity.
• Switched reminder note in the grammar section to normative text describing the requirement of whitespace between <compound-selector>s when a <combinator> token is missing.

20.3. Changes since the 2 February 2018 Working Draft

Significant changes since the 2 February 2018 Working Draft:

• Named the zero-specificity selector to :where(). (Issue 2143)
• Renamed :matches() to :is(). (Issue 3258)
• Redefined :empty to ignore white-space–only nodes. (Issue 1967)
• Redefined :blank to represent empty user input, rather than empty elements. (Issue 1283)
• Changed the specificity of :is(), :has(), and :nth-child() to not depend on which selector argument matched. (Issue 1027)
• Dropped the :drop() pseudo-classes since HTML dropped the related feature. (Issue 2257)
• Added the case-sensitive flag s to the attribute selector. (Issue 2101)
• Added further guidance on :focus-visible.
• Added Appendix B: Obsolete but Required -webkit- Parsing Quirks for Web Compat defining ::-webkit- pseudo-element parsing quirk. (Issue 3051)
• Rewrote grammar rules about where white space is allowed for clarity. (See § 18 Grammar.)

20.4. Changes since the 2 May 2013 Working Draft

Significant changes since the 2 May 2013 Working Draft include:

• Added the :target-within, :focus-within, :focus-visible, :playing, and :paused pseudo-classes.
• Added a zero-specificity :matches()-type pseudo-class, with name TBD.
• Replaced subject indicator (!) feature with :has().
• Replaced the :nth-match() and :nth-last-match() selectors with :nth-child(… of selector) and :nth-last-child(… of selector).
• Changed the :active-drop-target, :valid-drop-target, :invalid-drop-target with :drop().
• Sketched out an empty-or-whitespace-only selector for discussion (See open issue.)
• Renamed :user-error to :user-invalid. (See Discussion)
• Renamed :nth-column()/:nth-last-column() to :nth-col()/:nth-last-col() to avoid naming confusion with a potential ::column pseudo-class.
• Changed the non-functional form of the :local-link pseudo-class to account for fragment URLs.
• Removed the functional form of the :local-link() pseudo-class and reference combinator for lack of interest.
• Rewrote selectors grammar using the CSS Value Definition Syntax.
• Split out relative selectors from scoped selectors, as these are different concepts that can be independently invoked.
• Moved definition of <An+B> microsyntax to CSS Syntax.

  Semantic definition should probably move back here.

• Added new sections:
  • § 3.2 Data Model

    Need to define tree for XML.

  • § 19 API Hooks
    • Note that earlier versions of this section defined a section on evaluating a selector, but that section is no longer present. Specifications referencing that section should instead reference the algorithm to match a selector against a tree.
• Removed restriction on combinators within :matches() and :not(); see discussion.
• Defined specificity of a selector list. (Why?)
• Required quotes around :lang() values involving an asterisk; only language codes which happen to be CSS identifiers can be used unquoted.

Note: The 1 February 2018 draft included an inadvertent commit of unfinished work; 2 February 2018 has reverted this commit (and fixed some links because why not).

20.5. Changes since the 23 August 2012 Working Draft

Significant changes since the 23 August 2012 Working Draft include:

• Added :placeholder-shown pseudo-classes.
• Released some restrictions on :matches() and :not().
• Defined fast and complete Selectors profiles (now called “live” and “snapshot”).
• Improved definition of specificity to better handle :matches().
• Updated grammar.
• Cleaned up definition of <An+B> notation.
• Added definition of scope-relative selectors, changed scope-constrained to scope-filtered for less confusion with scope-contained.
• The :local-link() pseudo-class now ignores trailing slashes.

20.6. Changes since the 29 September 2011 Working Draft

Significant changes since the 29 September 2011 Working Draft include:

• Added language variant handling per RFC 4647.
• Added scoped selectors.
• Added :user-error (now called :user-invalid).
• Added :valid-drop-target.
• Changed column combinator from double slash to double pipe.

20.7. Changes Since Level 3

Additions since Level 3:

• Extended :not() to accept a selector list.
• Added :is() and :where() and :has().
• Added :scope.
• Added :any-link and :local-link.
• Added time-dimensional pseudo-classes.
• Added :target-within, :focus-within, and :focus-visible.
• Added :dir().
• Expanded :lang() to accept wildcard matching and lists of language codes.
• Expanded :nth-child() to accept a selector list.
• Merged in input selectors from CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 and added back :indeterminate.
• Added :blank and :user-invalid.
• Added grid-structural (column) selectors.
• Added case-insensitive / case-sensitive attribute-value matching flags.

21. Acknowledgements

The CSS working group would like to thank everyone who contributed to the previous Selectors specifications over the years, as those specifications formed the basis for this one. In particular, the working group would like to extend special thanks to the following for their specific contributions to Selectors Level 4: L. David Baron, Andrew Fedoniouk, Daniel Glazman, Ian Hickson, Grey Hodge, Lachlan Hunt, Anne van Kesteren, Jason Cranford Teague, Lea Verou

Privacy Considerations

• The :visited pseudo-class can expose information about which sites a user has previously visited, if the UA is not careful to screen from scripting any information that would reveal which elements match it.
• The :autofill pseudo-class can expose whether a user has interacted with this form before; however the same information can be derived by observing how quickly the form is filled out.

Security Considerations

The Privacy Considerations could also be considered to affect Security.