jQuery in Action
Selecting elements for manipulation
19
2.1.1 Using basic CSS selectors
For applying styles to page elements, web developers have become familiar with a
small, but powerful and useful, group of selection methods that work across all
browsers. Those methods include selection by an element's
small, but powerful and useful, group of selection methods that work across all
browsers. Those methods include selection by an element's
ID
,
CSS
class name,
tag name, and the
DOM
hierarchy of the page elements.
Here are some examples to give you a quick refresher.
a
--This selector matches all link (
<a>
) elements.
#specialID
--This selector matches elements that have an id of
specialID
.
.specialClass
--This selector matches elements that have the class of
spe-
cialClass
.
a#specialID.specialClass
--This selector matches links with an id of
spe-
cialID
and a class of
specialClass
.
p
a.specialClass
--This selector matches links with a class of
specialClass
declared within
<p>
elements.
We can mix and match the basic selector types to select fairly fine-grained sets
of elements. In fact, the most fancy and creative websites use some combination of
these basic options to create their dazzling displays.
of elements. In fact, the most fancy and creative websites use some combination of
these basic options to create their dazzling displays.
Figure 2.2 A selector value of
li
matches all
<li>
elements when applied as shown by the
display results.