Cheatsheets / Learn CSS
Syntax and Selectors
Class and ID Selectors
CSS classes can be reusable and applied to many /* Selects all elements with
elements. Class selectors are denoted with a period .
class="column" */
followed by the class name. CSS ID selectors should be
unique and used to style only a single element. ID .column {
selectors are denoted with a hash sign # followed by the }
id name.
/* Selects element with id="first-item" */
#first-item {
}
Groups of CSS Selectors
Match multiple selectors to the same CSS rule, using a h1, h2 {
comma-separated list. In this example, the text for both
color: red;
h1 and h2 is set to red.
}
Selector Chaining
CSS selectors define the set of elements to which a CSS
rule set applies. For instance, to select all <p>
elements, the p selector can be used to create style
rules.
Chaining Selectors
CSS selectors can be chained so that rule sets apply only /* Select h3 elements with the section-
to elements that match all criteria. For instance, to select
heading class */
<h3> elements that also have the section-
heading class, the selector h3.section- h3.section-heading {
heading can be used. color: blue;
}
/* Select elements with the section-
heading and button class */
.section-heading.button {
cursor: pointer;
}
CSS Type Selectors
CSS type selectors are used to match all elements of a /* Selects all <p> tags */
given type or tag name. Unlike for HTML syntax, we do not
p {
include the angle brackets when using type selectors for
tag names. When using type selectors, elements are }
matched regardless of their nesting level in the HTML.
CSS class selectors
The CSS class selector matches elements based on the .calendar-cell {
contents of their class attribute. For selecting
color: #fff;
elements having calendar-cell as the value of the
class attribute, a . needs to be prepended. }
HTML attributes with multiple values
Some HTML attributes can have multiple attribute values. <div class="value1 value2 value3"></div>
Multiple attribute values are separated by a space
between each attribute.
Selector Specificity
Specificity is a ranking system that is used when there are h1#header {
multiple conflicting property values that point to the
color: blue;
same element. When determining which rule to apply, the
selector with the highest specificity wins out. The most } /* implemented */
specific selector type is the ID selector, followed by class
selectors, followed by type selectors. In this example, only
h1 {
color: blue will be implemented as it has an ID
selector whereas color: red has a type selector. color: red;
} /* Not implemented */
CSS ID selectors
The CSS ID selector matches elements based on the #job-title {
contents of their id attribute. The values of id
font-weight: bold;
attribute should be unique in the entire DOM. For
selecting the element having job-title as the value }
of the id attribute, a # needs to be prepended.
CSS descendant selector
The CSS descendant selector combinator is used to div p { }
match elements that are descended from another
matched selector. They are denoted by a single space
between each selector and the descended selector. All section ol li { }
matching elements are selected regardless of the nesting
level in the HTML.
<link> Link Element
The <link> element is used to link HTML documents <!-- How to link an external stylesheet
to external resources like CSS files. It commonly uses:
with href, rel, and type attributes -->
href attribute to specify the URL to the
external resource
rel attribute to specify the relationship of the <link
linked document to the current document
href="./path/to/stylesheet/style.css"
type attribute to define the type of content
being linked
rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
Purpose of CSS
CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a language that is used
in combination with HTML that customizes how HTML
elements will appear. CSS can define styles and change
the layout and design of a sheet.
Write CSS in Separate Files
CSS code can be written in its own files to keep it <head>
separate from the HTML code. The extension for CSS files
<link href="style.css" type="text/css"
is .css. These can be linked to an HTML file using a
<link> tag in the <head> section. rel="stylesheet">
</head>
Write CSS in HTML File
CSS code can be written in an HTML file by enclosing the <head>
code in <style> tags. Code surrounded by
<style>
<style> tags will be interpreted as CSS syntax.
h1 {
color: blue;
}
</style>
</head>
Inline Styles
CSS styles can be directly added to HTML elements by <h2 style="text-align: center;">Centered
using the style attribute in the element’s opening tag.
text</h2>
Each style declaration is ended with a semicolon. Styles
added in this manner are known as inline styles.
<p style="color: blue; font-size:
18px;">Blue, 18-point text</p>
Separating HTML code from CSS code
It is common practice to separate content code in HTML
files from styling code in CSS files. This can help make the
code easier to maintain, by keeping the syntax for each
file separate, and any changes to the content or styling
can be made in their respective files.
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