Introduction and Usage of CSS Selectors

css selectors introduction and usage
10 November 2024

CSS, or cascading style sheets, is one of the most important and widely used technologies in web design. By using CSS, we can completely customize and style web pages according to our specific needs. One of the key concepts in CSS is selectors. Selectors allow us to target specific elements in HTML and assign them particular styles.

CSS selectors provide great flexibility so that by using various combinations of selectors, we can specifically target elements we care about. This targeting can be based on type, class, identifier (id), or even a specific state of the elements. In this regard, pseudo selectors, which are known as "dynamic" selectors, also give you the ability to track states such as hover or the status of a link that has been visited.

Assume you have a web project and want to apply a specific style for when a user hovers over an element with their mouse; determine this precisely. This is exactly the place where pseudo selectors, such as :hover, can help. Following is an example of this usage.

One of CSS’s significant advantages is the ability to combine selectors. You can combine classes, ids, and pseudo selectors to achieve much more precise and advanced styles. Often, these combinations allow for a cleaner and more maintainable code.

You cannot use the :past selector directly in CSS; however, you can use existing selectors for similar functionality. By utilizing pseudo selectors like :visited or :hover, you can target parts of the web that have been interacted with or have changed based on user interactions.

So, in your daily projects, always pay attention to the fact that the combination of selectors can lead to more complex and nuanced results. The same simple selectors such as :hover or :visited provide designers with extensive capabilities.

Example Code: Using CSS Selectors

<!DOCTYPE html>\r\n<html lang="fa">\r\n<head>\r\n    <meta charset="UTF-8">\r\n    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">\r\n    <title>Example CSS Selector</title>\r\n    <style>\r\n        a {\r\n            text-decoration: none;\r\n            color: blue;\r\n        }\r\n        a:hover {\r\n            color: red;\r\n        }\r\n        a:visited {\r\n            color: purple;\r\n        }\r\n    </style>\r\n</head>\r\n<body>\r\n    <a href="#">Example Link</a>\r\n</body>\r\n</html>\r\n

Line-by-Line Code Explanation

<!DOCTYPE html>: This line indicates the type of document and is recognized as HTML5 by the browser.
<html lang="fa">: This tag indicates the start of an HTML document and specifies the language as Persian.
<meta charset="UTF-8">: This line specifies the character encoding used for displaying content.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">: This line is for optimizing the page's layout on various device sizes.
<title>Example CSS Selector</title>: The title of the page displayed in the browser tab.
<style> to </style>: This section contains CSS code used for styling elements in HTML.
a: Selector for all <a> tags in the HTML document.
text-decoration: none;: This property removes the default underline from links.
color: blue;: Setting the color of link text to blue.
a:hover: This selector applies styles when the mouse hovers over the link.
color: red;: Changes the link's text color to red when hovered.
a:visited: Applies styles for links that have been visited by the user.
color: purple;: Changes the color of visited links to purple.
<body> to </body>: This section displays the main content of the HTML page.
<a href="#">Example Link</a>: An example of a link that references a different section of the page or another page.

FAQ

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How can I use :hover selectors in CSS?

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What is the use of :visited selector in CSS?