Attribute selectors

The CSS attribute selector matches elements based on the presence or value of a given attribute.

/* <a> elements with a title attribute */
a[title] {
  color: purple;
}

/* <a> elements with an href matching "https://example.org" */
a[href="https://example.org"] {
  color: green;
}

/* <a> elements with an href containing "example" */
a[href*="example"] {
  font-size: 2em;
}

/* <a> elements with an href ending ".org" */
a[href$=".org"] {
  font-style: italic;
}

/* <a> elements whose class attribute contains the word "logo" */
a[class~="logo"] {
  padding: 2px;
}

Syntax

[attr]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr.

[attr=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is exactly value.

[attr~=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is a whitespace-separated list of words, one of which is exactly value.

[attr|=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value can be exactly value or can begin with value immediately followed by a hyphen, - (U+002D). It is often used for language subcode matches.

[attr^=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is prefixed (preceded) by value.

[attr$=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value is suffixed (followed) by value.

[attr*=value]

Represents elements with an attribute name of attr whose value contains at least one occurrence of value within the string.

[attr operator value i]

Adding an i (or I) before the closing bracket causes the value to be compared case-insensitively (for characters within the ASCII range).

[attr operator value s]

Adding an s (or S) before the closing bracket causes the value to be compared case-sensitively (for characters within the ASCII range).

Examples

CSS

a {
  color: blue;
}

/* Internal links, beginning with "#" */
a[href^="#"] {
  background-color: gold;
}

/* Links with "example" anywhere in the URL */
a[href*="example"] {
  background-color: silver;
}

/* Links with "insensitive" anywhere in the URL,
   regardless of capitalization */
a[href*="insensitive" i] {
  color: cyan;
}

/* Links with "cAsE" anywhere in the URL,
with matching capitalization */
a[href*="cAsE" s] {
  color: pink;
}

/* Links that end in ".org" */
a[href$=".org"] {
  color: red;
}

/* Links that start with "https" and end in ".org" */
a[href^="https"][href$=".org"] {
  color: green;
}

HTML

<ul>
  <li><a href="#internal">Internal link</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://example.com">Example link</a></li>
  <li><a href="#InSensitive">Insensitive internal link</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://example.org">Example org link</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://example.org">Example https org link</a></li>
</ul>

Result

Languages

CSS

/* All divs with a `lang` attribute are bold. */
div[lang] {
  font-weight: bold;
}

/* All divs without a `lang` attribute are italicized. */
div:not([lang]) {
  font-style: italic;
}

/* All divs in US English are blue. */
div[lang~="en-us"] {
  color: blue;
}

/* All divs in Portuguese are green. */
div[lang="pt"] {
  color: green;
}

/* All divs in Chinese are red, whether
   simplified (zh-CN) or traditional (zh-TW). */
div[lang|="zh"] {
  color: red;
}

/* All divs with a Traditional Chinese
   `data-lang` are purple. */
/* Note: You could also use hyphenated attributes
   without double quotes */
div[data-lang="zh-TW"] {
  color: purple;
}

HTML

<div lang="en-us en-gb en-au en-nz">Hello World!</div>
<div lang="pt">Olá Mundo!</div>
<div lang="zh-CN">世界您好！</div>
<div lang="zh-TW">世界您好！</div>
<div data-lang="zh-TW">世界您好！</div>

Result

HTML ordered lists

The HTML specification requires the type attribute to be matched case-insensitively because it is primarily used in the <input> element. Note that if the modifiers are not supported by the user agent, then the selector will not match.

CSS

/* Case-sensitivity depends on document language */
ol[type="a"] {
  list-style-type: lower-alpha;
  background: red;
}

ol[type="b" s] {
  list-style-type: lower-alpha;
  background: lime;
}

ol[type="B" s] {
  list-style-type: upper-alpha;
  background: grey;
}

ol[type="c" i] {
  list-style-type: upper-alpha;
  background: green;
}

HTML

<ol type="A">
  <li>Red background for case-insensitive matching (default for the type selector)</li>
</ol>
<ol type="b">
  <li>Lime background if `s` modifier is supported (case-sensitive match)</li>
</ol>
<ol type="B">
  <li>Grey background if `s` modifier is supported (case-sensitive match)</li>
</ol>
<ol type="C">
  <li>Green background if `i` modifier is supported (case-insensitive match)</li>
</ol>

Result

Specifications

Specification
Selectors Level 4
# attribute-selectors

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
Attribute_selectors
1
12
1
7
9
3
≤37
18
4
14
1
1.0
case_insensitive_modifier
49
79
47
No
36
9
49
49
47
36
9
5.0
case_sensitive_modifier
No
See bug 1041095.
No
See bug 1041095.
66
No
No
See bug 1041095.
No
No
See bug 1041095.
No
See bug 1041095.
66
No
See bug 1041095.
No
No
See bug 1041095.

See also

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Attribute_selectors