So in the ... if the two B values are also tied, then the specificity with a larger C value is more specific; if all the values are tied, the two specificities are equal. Every selector has its place in the specificity hierarchy. The Definitive Guide to CSS Cascading and Specificity. The actual specificity of a group of nested selectors takes some calculating. Examples might be simplified to improve reading and learning. The specificity of A is 0,0,0,1 (one element), the specificity of B is 0,1,0,1 (one ID reference point and one element), the specificity value of C is 1,0,0,0, since it is an inline styling. Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and, therefore, will be applied. CSS Specificity explained According to MDN, Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and, therefore, will be applied. Since 1 < 101 < 1000, the third rule (C) has a greater level of You can calculate the specificty by giving point values to different types of selectors. Specificity Calculator: An interactive website to test and understand your own CSS rules -. As per CSS rules, directly targeted elements will always take precedence over rules which an element inherits from its ancestor. When an important rule is used on a style declaration, this declaration overrides any other declarations. When multiple declarations have equal specificity, the last declaration found in the CSS is applied to the element. following situation. CSS Reference CSS Reference CSS Browser Support CSS Selectors CSS Functions CSS Reference Aural CSS Web Safe Fonts CSS Font Fallbacks CSS Animatable CSS Units CSS PX-EM Converter CSS Colors CSS Color Values CSS Default Values CSS Entities At some point, you will be working on a project and you will find that the CSS you thought should be applied to an element is not working. I think that’s a shame because there is a vastly more effective mental model I’ve found for explaining CSS Cascading. Specificity is one of the ways that conflicting rules are applied. CSS Specificity. Cascading is an important part of Cascading Stylesheets, but it’s often explained poorly and online tutorials lead to more confusion than clarity. Note: Proximity of elements in the document tree has no effect on the specificity. CSS specificity assigns a numerical representation of a selector in order to compare in case there are style conflicts. As per the documentation Specificity is the logic by which the browser decides which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element incase there are two or more conflicting CSS rules that point to the same element and which will be applied. selector - The embedded style sheet is closer to the element to be styled. If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, do not hesitate to send us an e-mail: W3Schools is optimized for learning and training. Specificity only applies when the same element is targeted by multiple declarations. Every CSS rule has a particular weight(as mentioned in the introduction), meaning it could be more or less important than the others or equally important. CSS Specificity explained According to MDN, Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and, therefore, will be applied. The specificity-adjustment pseudo-class :where() always has its specificity replaced with zero. Troubleshooting your CSS is easier when you can determine the specificity values of your selectors. In order to determine which CSS rule to apply to the anchor tag, the browser will calculate the specificity value and check which one is the highest. IDs get 100 points 3. What is specificity? Specificity. Styles for a directly targeted element will always take precedence over inherited styles, regardless of the specificity of the inherited rule. Knowing how CSS specificity works is a fundamental skill. What is CSS Specificity? While using W3Schools, you agree to have read and accepted our. For each class value (or pseudo-class or attribute selector), add “1” point to column “c”– (0,0,1,0 points… So specificity of the above example becomes 0-1-3 -> 13 LI.red.level {} specificity = 21 In the example above, we don't have any ID attribute, so the value of x=0;since we have two other attribute names in the selector so value of y=2; and we have one element name in … Every selector in a sequence increases the sequence's overall specificity. In general, CSS Specificity is the set of rules applied to the CSS selectors in order to determine which style should be applied to an element. For each element reference, apply 0,0,0,1 point. A selector’s specificity is calculated as follows: 1. This is because the h1 selector targets the element specifically, but the green selector is only inherited from its parent. Note: Specificity is a common reason why your CSS-rules don't apply to some 101 (one ID reference and one element)The specificity of C is 1000 (inline styling). In the following case, the selector *[id="foo"] counts as an attribute selector for the purpose of determining the selector's specificity, even though it selects an ID. It sounds complicated, there are all of these rules, you might even have to do some math! Specificity is calculated in a very particular way, based on the values of 4 distinct categories. element names and pseudo-elements, such as h1, div, :before and :after. Specificity is only based on the matching rules which are composed of CSS selectors of different sorts. Web poster displays CSS specificity … You can give every ID selector (“#whatever”) a value of 100, every class selector (“.whatever”) a value of 10 and every HTML selector (“whatever”) a value of 1. Specificity is based on the matching rules which are composed of different sorts of CSS selectors. In this case, the first selector has a higher specificity value therefore, the browser will use its declarations to apply to the anchor tag. Including an id as part of an attribute selector instead of as an id selector gives it the same specificity as a class. When you add them all up, hey presto, you have a specificity value. Example: Now, we will look at how specificity is calculated if we are applying multiple styles to the same element. Get the latest and greatest from MDN delivered straight to your inbox. W3C - 6 Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance -- 6.4.2 !important rules; Calculating Selector Specificity. © 2005-2020 Mozilla and individual contributors. If two rules share the same weight, source and specificity, the later one is applied. Specificity is a weight that is applied to a given CSS declaration, determined by the number of each selector type in the matching selector. Start at 0, add 1000 for style In fact, this is what we want. What about the ‘specifics’? For each ID value, add “1” point to column “b”– (0,1,0,0 points) 3. most specific and therefore wins out. categories which define the specificity level of a selector: Inline styles - An inline style is attached directly to the element to be styled. Specificity is a weight that is applied to a given CSS declaration, determined by the number of each selector type in the matching selector. Specificity is a method of conflict resolution within the cascade. The matches-any pseudo-class :is() and the negation pseudo-class :not() are not considered a pseudo-class in the specificity calculation. The trick is understanding how conflicting rules will apply. For example, the negation pseudo-class may only take a simple selector as an argument. Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are more relevant to an element and therefore should be applied. This is because it matches the same element but the ID selector has a higher specificity. (The selectors declared inside :not() do, however. Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and, therefore, will be applied. Inline Styles get 1000 points 2. When multiple declarations have equal specificity, the last declaration found in the CSS is applied to the element. If the element has inline styling, add “1” point to column “a”. This is an experimental technologyCheck the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production. Although technically !important has nothing to do with specificity, it interacts directly with it. This weight defines which properties will be applied to an element when there are conflicting rules. elements, although you think they should. If the same rule is written twice into the external style sheet, then specificity, and therefore will be applied. Content is available under these licenses. For a style to be applied to a particular element, the developer has to abide by the rules, so that the browser knows how to apply the style. By indicating one or more elements before the element you're selecting, the rule becomes more specific and gets higher priority: No matter the order, text will be green because that rule is most specific. Since 0001 = 1 < 0101 = 101 < 1000, In a specificity tie, the last rule defined wins. A) Add another CSS rule with !important, and either give the selector a higher specificity (adding a tag, id or class to the selector), or add a CSS rule with the same selector at a later point than the existing one. Each individual CSS Selector has its own specificity value. Many JavaScript frameworks and libraries add inline styles. As a nonsense special case for (2), duplicate simple selectors to increase specificity when you have nothing more to specify. From the CSS Specification: A selector's specificity is calculated as follows: count 1, if the declaration is from, is a 'style' attribute rather than a rule with a selector, 0 otherwise (= a) (In HTML, values … Specificity is the weight assigned to a given CSS declaration and it is determined by the number of each selector type in the matching selector. Specificity Calculator is built for CSS Selectors Level 3. How specificity is calculated? In this case, the browser needs a way to identify the style to be applied to the matching element, and CSS specificity is the way of doing it. 1. CSS Specificity. In order to determine which CSS rule to apply to the anchor tag, the browser will calculate the specificity value and check which one is the highest. Your global CSS file that sets visual aspects of your site globally may be overwritten by inline styles defined directly on individual elements. You can generally read the values as if they were just a number, like 1,0,0,0 is “1000”, and so clearly wins over a specificity of 0,1,0,0 or “100”. Use more specific rules. Both inline styles and !important are considered very bad practice, but sometimes you need the latter to override the former. When two conflicting declarations with the !important rule are applied to the same element, the declaration with a greater specificity will be applied. The specificity of A is 1 (one element)The specificity of B is Upon assessing a rule’s importance, the cascade attributes a specificity to it; if one rule is more specific than another, it overrides it. For each class value (or pseudo-class or attribute selector), apply 0,0,1,0 points. MDN put it nicely (as always): That means that CSS specificity is a set of rules used by browsers in determining which of the developer-defined styles will be applied to a specific element. Each selector applies different styling to that element. An ID selector such as #foo has a specificity of 1,0,0. It will give you a deeper understanding of how CSS property values are resolved when two or more style rules match the same set of HTML elements. Here is the short list (listed in order of importance): 1. id selectors 2. class and pseudo class selectors 3. element selectors If multiple CSS rules conflict with one another, the most important or specific selector is the one that will apply. Specificity Calculator isn’t a CSS validator. There are four Elements and psuedo-elements get 1 point each For a visual explanation, see cssspecificity.com. B) Or add the same selector after the existing one: C) Or, preferably, rewrite the original rule to avoid the use of !important altogether. Inline styles added to an element (e.g., style="font-weight: bold;") always overwrite any styles in external stylesheets, and thus can be thought of as having the highest specificity. Using !important, however, is bad practice and should be avoided because it makes debugging more difficult by breaking the natural cascading in your stylesheets. element, the browser follows some rules to determine which one is CALCULATING A SELECTOR SPECIFICITY. specific! the lower rule in the style sheet is closer to the element to be styled, and therefore will be applied: ID selectors have a higher specificity than attribute selectors If there is a tie, then the compiler overrides the prior style, so whichever was executed last breaks the tie. Scott. These A, B, and C values are then combined to form a final specificity value. The proximity of an element to other elements that are referenced in a given selector has no impact on specificity. includes .classes, [attributes] and pseudo-classes such as :hover, :focus etc. # First lets have a look at a definition from Mozilla Developer Network: Specificity is the means by which a browser decides which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and therefore will be applied. attribute, add 100 for each ID, add 10 for each attribute, class or Without !important, the first rule will have more specificity and will win over the second rule. https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/10/mdn-web-docs-evolves-lowdown-on-the-upcoming-new-platform/, "Specificity" in "Cascade and inheritance", https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3706819/what-are-the-implications-of-using-important-in-css, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9245353/what-does-important-in-css-mean, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5701149/when-to-use-important-property-in-css, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11178673/how-to-override-important, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2042497/when-to-use-important-to-save-the-day-when-working-with-css, http://www.w3.org/TR/selectors/#specificity. Elements and pseudo-elements - This category includes - Look at the following three code lines: the first rule is more specific than the other two, and will be applied. Specificity Calculation. Both selectors above now have the same weight. The result of CSS Specificity calculation takes the form of four comma-separated values a,b,c,dwhere the values in column “a” are the most important and those in column “d” are least important. By Bill Mei. Sweet. Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and, therefore, will be applied. CSS Specificity: The Class Rule. In this case, you could set certain styles in your global CSS file as !important, thus overriding inline styles set directly on elements. Finally, if declarations have the same importance, source, and specificity, sort them by the order they are specified in the CSS. The following list of selector types increases by specificity: Universal selector (*), combinators (+, >, ~, ' ', ||) and negation pseudo-class (:not()) have no effect on specificity. pseudo-class, add 1 for each element name or pseudo-element. Usually the problem is that you have created two rules which could potentially apply to the same element. Selectors have different values of importance (or specificity). The cascade, and the closely-related concept of specificity, are mechanisms that control whic… If you haven’t already created an account, you will be prompted to do so after signing in. Assume an element on a web document is targeted by two different CSS selectors. Classes, attributes, and pseudo-classes get 10 points 4. CSS specificity is a topic that many new front end coders avoid for as long as possible. If there are two or more conflicting CSS rules that point to the same The CSS specificity is important only when various selectors are affecting the same element. are ultimately applied to an element. ), For more information, visit: "Specificity" in "Cascade and inheritance", you can also visit: https://specifishity.com. IDs - An ID is a unique identifier for the page elements, such as (Also, the rule for blue overwrites the rule for red, notwithstanding the order of the rules). Inherited values also have How do you make awesome paragraphs always turn red, even ones inside #someElement? The newsletter is offered in English only at the moment. The universal selector (*) has low specificity, while ID selectors are highly a specificity of 0. Using !important with a very targeted selector is one way to override these inline styles. This works because in a specificity tie, the last rule defined wins. The last declaration wins. Specificity is based on the form of a selector. In this case, the first selector has a higher specificity value, therefore the browser will use its declarations to apply to the anchor tag. CSS rules often conflict with one another. Sign in to enjoy the benefits of an MDN account. Classes, attributes and pseudo-classes - This category Here is a look of most to least specificity depending on the selectors: Additional Information On Specificity : Additional Information on Specificity. #navbar. But selectors placed into the pseudo-class count as normal selectors when determining the count of selector types. The specificity of A is 1 (one element) The specificity of B is 101 (one ID reference and one element) The specificity of C is 1000 (inline styling) Since 1 < 101 < 1000, the third rule (C) has a greater level of specificity, and therefore will be applied. Simply put, if two CSS selectors apply to the same element, the one with higher specificity is used. It automatically wins (1,0,0,0 points) 2. If you enter invalid selectors it will return incorrect results. Only the selector inside the :not() pseudo-class (negation pseudo-class) is counted. Ultimately, you can only avoid it for so long. Specificity only applies when the same element is targeted by multiple declarations. Equal specificity: the latest rule counts - CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and that first word cascadingis incredibly important to understand — the way that the cascade behaves is key to understanding CSS. Specificity in terms of Stylesheets.

. When two or more selectors have equal specificity value, then … Tutorials, references, and examples are constantly reviewed to avoid errors, but we cannot warrant full correctness of all content. This is because the two declarations have equal selector type counts, but the html h1 selector is declared last. Specificity is an essential concept that you need to grasp to be an effective developer. A class selector beats any number of element selectors - a class selector such as .intro beats h1, p, div, etc: The universal selector and inherited values have a specificity of 0 - *, Simple put, if two CSS selectors apply to the same element, the one with higher specifity is used. body * and similar have a zero specificity. Contextual selectors are more specific than a single element MDN will be in maintenance mode, Monday December 14, from 7:00 AM until no later than 5:00 PM Pacific Time (in UTC, Monday December 14, 3:00 PM until Tuesday December 15, 1:00 AM). 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