CSS Pseudo-elements and CSS Pseudo-classes Demystified

CSS Pseudo-elements and CSS Pseudo-classes Demystified

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Hey there, today I picked the topic CSS Pseudo-elements and Pseudo-classes, You may ask why? it's because I little bit confused with the pseudo-elements and pseudo-class. So I just want to make clear about this today and thought to share my learnings here.

Pseudo-elements and Pseudo-classes are some of the cool concepts of CSS. So learning it will surely help you when you want to design with CSS.


So what is Pseudo-element?

A CSS pseudo-element is used to style specified parts of an element.

For example, it can be used to:

  • Style the first letter, or line, of an element
  • Insert content before, or after, the content of an element

Syntax

The syntax of pseudo-elements:

selector::pseudo-element {
  property: value;
}

And what are Pseudo-classes?

A pseudo-class is used to define a special state of an element.

For example, it can be used to:

  • Style an element when a user mouses over it
  • Style visited and unvisited links differently
  • Style an element when it gets focus

Syntax

The syntax of pseudo-classes:

selector:pseudo-class {
  property: value;
}

Can you find the difference in syntax?

Notice the double colon notation - ::first-line versus :first-line

The single-colon notation for pseudo-classes and double-colon notation used for pseudo-elements in CSS3.

This was an attempt from W3C to distinguish between pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements.


Examples of CSS Pseudo Elements

Selector Example Description
::after p::after Insert something after the content of each <p> element
::before p::before Insert something before the content of each <p> element
::first-letter p::first-letter Selects the first letter of each <p> element
::first-line p::first-line Selects the first line of each <p> element
::marker ::marker Selects the markers of list items
::selection p::selection Selects the portion of an element that is selected by a user

Examples of CSS Pseudo Classes

Selector Example Example description
:active a:active Selects the active link
:checked input:checked Selects every checked <input> element
:disabled input:disabled Selects every disabled <input> element
:empty p:empty Selects every <p> element that has no children
:enabled input:enabled Selects every enabled <input> element
:first-child p:first-child Selects every <p> elements that is the first child of its parent
:first-of-type p:first-of-type Selects every <p> element that is the first <p> element of its parent
:focus input:focus
Selects the <input> element that has focus
:hover a:hover
Selects links on mouse over
:in-range
input:in-range
Selects <input> elements with a value within a specified range
:invalid
input:invalid
Selects all <input> elements with an invalid value
:lang(language)
p:lang(it)
Selects every <p> element with a lang attribute value starting with "it"
:last-child
p:last-child
Selects every <p> elements that is the last child of its parent
:last-of-type
p:last-of-type
Selects every <p> element that is the last <p> element of its parent
:link a:link
Selects all unvisited links
:not(selector) :not(p) Selects every element that is not a <p> element
:nth-child(n)
p:nth-child(2) Selects every <p> element that is the second child of its parent
:nth-last-child(n)
p:nth-last-child(2) Selects every <p> element that is the second child of its parent, counting from the last child
:nth-last-of-type(n)
p:nth-last-of-type(2)
Selects every <p> element that is the second <p> element of its parent, counting from the last child
:nth-of-type(n)
p:nth-of-type(2)
Selects every <p> element that is the second <p> element of its parent
:only-of-type p:only-of-type
Selects every <p> element that is the only <p> element of its parent
:only-child
p:only-child
Selects every <p> element that is the only child of its parent
:optional
input:optional
Selects <input> elements with no "required" attribute
:out-of-range
input:out-of-range
Selects <input> elements with a value outside a specified range
:read-only
input:read-only
Selects <input> elements with a "readonly" attribute specified
:read-write
input:read-write Selects <input> elements with no "readonly" attribute
:required input:required Selects <input> elements with a "required" attribute specified
:root
root
Selects the document's root element
:target
#news:target
Selects the current active #news element (clicked on a URL containing that anchor name)
:valid
input:valid
Selects all <input> elements with a valid value
:visited
a:visited
Selects all visited links

References

  1. https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_pseudo_elements.asp
  2. https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_pseudo_classes.asp
  3. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_blocks/Selectors/Pseudo-classes_and_pseudo-elements

Hope you get an idea about pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes. Thanks for taking your time and read this article. If you found this article useful follow me on Twitter. Feel free to contact me anytime to discuss or share your ideas.

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