the.com/selector
The address you give a webpage element so JavaScript stops guessing and starts obeying.
means A pattern that picks out which element(s) in a document you mean — by tag, class, id, or relationship — so code or CSS can target them precisely.
from From 'select,' tracing back to Latin 'selectus' (past participle of 'seligere,' to choose — 'se-' apart + 'legere' to gather or pick). 'Selector' as a technical term for a device or code that chooses among options shows up in early electronics and telephony; CSS and later JavaScript's query APIs borrowed that same sense of 'the thing that does the choosing' for picking elements out of a page.
- css vs js
- css picks styles, js picks targets, same syntax
- specificity wars
- id beats class beats tag, always
- nth-child trap
- counts siblings, not matches, classic bug source
- attribute selectors
- can match partial text like input[name^=user]