Author: A M Robiul Islam | Published at: 9 Sep 2024

In the world of web design, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) plays a crucial role in creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites. To effectively style web pages, understanding CSS selectors is essential. These selectors are the foundation of CSS, allowing developers to target specific elements in the HTML to apply styles efficiently.

In this article, we’ll dive into five key CSS selectors: the Universal Selector, Tag Selector, Class Selector, ID Selector, and Attribute Selector. We’ll also explain how CSS specificity affects which styles are applied when multiple rules target the same element. By mastering these selectors, you can write cleaner, more efficient CSS and avoid common pitfalls.

What Are CSS Selectors?

CSS selectors are patterns that tell the browser which HTML elements to style. They enable you to control the appearance of your web page without modifying the HTML structure itself. The right use of selectors ensures that your design is consistent, adaptable, and easy to maintain.

Let’s explore five of the most important CSS selectors, and how they can improve your web design process.

1. Universal Selector

The Universal Selector is one of the simplest yet most powerful selectors in CSS. Represented by an asterisk (*), this selector applies styles to all elements on a page. It’s a great tool when you want to reset or apply universal styles, such as padding, margins, or borders, across all HTML elements.

Example:

{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
box-sizing: border-box;
}

In this example, the Universal Selector removes the default margin and padding from all HTML elements and sets box-sizing to ensure consistent sizing across the entire page.

Use Cases:

• CSS Reset: The Universal Selector is often used in CSS resets to neutralize browser-specific default styles.
• Global Styles: It’s useful when applying base styles to all elements without individually targeting them.

Limitations: