https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_attribute_selectors.asp

Style HTML Elements With Specific Attributes

It is possible to style HTML elements that have specific attributes or attribute values.

CSS [attribute] Selector

The [attribute] selector is used to select elements with a specified attribute.

The following example selects all <a> elements with a target attribute:

Example

{
  background-color: yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
a[target] {
  background-color: yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute] Selector</h2>
<p>The links with a target attribute gets a yellow background:</p>

<a href="https://www.w3schools.com">w3schools.com</a>
<a href="http://www.disney.com" target="_blank">disney.com</a>
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org" target="_top">wikipedia.org</a>

</body>
</html>

 

CSS [attribute="value"] Selector

The [attribute="value"] selector is used to select elements with a specified attribute and value.

The following example selects all <a> elements with a target="_blank" attribute:

Example

{ 
  background-color: yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
a[target="_blank"] {
  background-color: yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute="value"] Selector</h2>
<p>The link with target="_blank" gets a yellow background:</p>

<a href="https://www.w3schools.com">w3schools.com</a>
<a href="http://www.disney.com" target="_blank">disney.com</a>
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org" target="_top">wikipedia.org</a>

</body>
</html>

 

CSS [attribute~="value"] Selector

The [attribute~="value"] selector is used to select elements with an attribute value containing a specified word.

The following example selects all elements with a title attribute that contains a space-separated list of words, one of which is "flower":

Example

{
  border: 5px solid yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
[title~="flower"] {
  border: 5px solid yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute~="value"] Selector</h2>
<p>All images with the title attribute containing the word "flower" get a yellow border.</p>

<img src="klematis.jpg" title="klematis flower" width="150" height="113">
<img src="img_flwr.gif" title="flower" width="224" height="162">
<img src="img_tree.gif" title="tree" width="200" height="358">

</body>
</html>

 

The example above will match elements with title="flower", title="summer flower", and title="flower new", but not title="my-flower" or title="flowers".

 

 

CSS [attribute|="value"] Selector

The [attribute|="value"] selector is used to select elements with the specified attribute, whose value can be exactly the specified value, or the specified value followed by a hyphen (-).

Note: The value has to be a whole word, either alone, like class="top", or followed by a hyphen( - ), like class="top-text".

Example

{
  background: yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
[class|="top"] {
  background: yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute|="value"] Selector</h2>

<h1 class="top-header">Welcome</h1>
<p class="top-text">Hello world!</p>
<p class="topcontent">Are you learning CSS?</p>

</body>
</html>

 

CSS [attribute^="value"] Selector

The [attribute^="value"] selector is used to select elements with the specified attribute, whose value starts with the specified value.

The following example selects all elements with a class attribute value that starts with "top":

Note: The value does not have to be a whole word!

Example

{
  background: yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
[class^="top"] {
  background: yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute^="value"] Selector</h2>

<h1 class="top-header">Welcome</h1>
<p class="top-text">Hello world!</p>
<p class="topcontent">Are you learning CSS?</p>

</body>
</html>

 

CSS [attribute$="value"] Selector

The [attribute$="value"] selector is used to select elements whose attribute value ends with a specified value.

The following example selects all elements with a class attribute value that ends with "test":

Note: The value does not have to be a whole word!  

Example

{
  background: yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style> 
[class$="test"] {
  background: yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute$="value"] Selector</h2>

<div class="first_test">The first div element.</div>
<div class="second">The second div element.</div>
<div class="my-test">The third div element.</div>
<p class="mytest">This is some text in a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

 

CSS [attribute*="value"] Selector

The [attribute*="value"] selector is used to select elements whose attribute value contains a specified value.

The following example selects all elements with a class attribute value that contains "te":

Note: The value does not have to be a whole word!  

Example

{
  background: yellow;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style> 
[class*="te"] {
  background: yellow;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>CSS [attribute*="value"] Selector</h2>

<div class="first_test">The first div element.</div>
<div class="second">The second div element.</div>
<div class="my-test">The third div element.</div>
<p class="mytest">This is some text in a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

 

Styling Forms

The attribute selectors can be useful for styling forms without class or ID:

Example

{

  width: 150px;

   
display: block;

   
margin-bottom: 10px;

   
background-color: yellow;
}


input[type="button"]
{

  width: 120px;

  margin-left: 35px;

  display: block;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
input[type="text"] {
  width: 150px;
  display: block;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
  background-color: yellow;
}

input[type="button"] {
  width: 120px;
  margin-left: 35px;
  display: block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>Styling Forms</h2>

<form name="input" action="" method="get">
  Firstname:<input type="text" name="Name" value="Peter" size="20">
  Lastname:<input type="text" name="Name" value="Griffin" size="20">
  <input type="button" value="Example Button">
</form>

</body>
</html>

 

Tip: Visit our CSS Forms Tutorial for more examples on how to style forms with CSS.


All CSS Attribute Selectors

Selector

Example

Example description

[attribute]

[target]

Selects all elements with a target attribute

[attribute=value]

[target="_blank"]

Selects all elements with target="_blank"

[attribute~=value]

[title~="flower"]

Selects all elements with a title attribute that contains a

space-separated list of words, one of which is "flower"

[attribute|=value]

[lang|="en"]

Selects all elements with a lang attribute value starting with "en"

[attribute^=value]

a[href^="https"]

Selects all <a> elements with a href attribute value starting with "https"

[attribute$=value]

a[href$=".pdf"]

Selects all <a> elements with a href attribute value ending with ".pdf"

[attribute*=value]

a[href*="w3schools"]

Selects all <a> elements with a href attribute value containing the substring "w3schools"