In this tutorial, you will learn what a pseudo-class is and how you can use them to target different elements on your page. Using pseudo-classes is a powerful tool in the frontend developer's toolkit to enable cool effects on your webpage, that you may have thought could be achieved using Javascript.
How Do I Target State On A Page In CSS?
When someone visits your web page and performs certain actions, like hovering the mouse over a link, in the background the web browser dynamically applies different 'state'. This 'state management' is done by the browser by applying something called a pseudo-state to the element.
How the browser applies state is pretty boring, however, as a frontend developer you can use these different states/pseudo-classes to change the style of your elements depending on the state. In the example above, when you hover your mouse over a link the browser will apply the 'hover' pseudo-class to that link. You can then write a CSS selector to target the link in hover state to say apply an underline.
Pseudo-classes should hopefully be fairly simple to grasp. There are loads of pseudo-classes available that allow you to target a whole host of different actions and states.
All 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 |
To write a selector that targets a pseudo-class, you first proceed the state with a semi-colon, followed by the name of the pseudo-class then your styles.
.myclass:hover {
}
A few common pseudo-classes are :link, :visited, :hover, :active, :first-child and :nth-child. There are more, and we’re going to see them all in a minute.
What are CSS Pseudo Elements?
The :first-child Pseudo-class
All CSS Pseudo Elements
| Selector | Example | Example description |
|---|---|---|
| ::after | p::after | Insert content after every <p> element |
| ::before | p::before | Insert content before every <p> element |
| ::first-letter | p::first-letter | Selects the first letter of every <p> element |
| ::first-line | p::first-line | Selects the first line of every <p> element |
| ::selection | p::selection | Selects the portion of an element that is selected by a user |