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23. December 2024
CSS specificity is a crucial concept in web development that can make or break the way your styles are applied. Imagine spending hours tweaking your stylesheet, only to have that one stubborn style refuse to cooperate. Welcome to the world of specificity, where understanding how browsers decide which rules to apply can be the difference between a beautifully designed website and a tangled mess.
At its core, CSS specificity is a hierarchy that determines which rule takes precedence when multiple rules target the same element. The universal selector (*), which applies to everything but gets overridden by anything else, is essentially a blanket rule. This means that even with a universally applied style, an element-specific rule will take precedence.
Element selectors carry 1 point of specificity, making them stronger than universal selectors. Class, pseudo-class, or attribute selectors are worth 10 points and can override both universal and element selectors. IDs, with their high value, should be used sparingly as they can make styles harder to manage.
Inline styles have a whopping 1,000-point value and trump everything except !important. However, overusing it can lead to chaos in your CSS, so use it judiciously when working with third-party libraries.
So, what happens when two rules have the same specificity? The rule that appears later in the stylesheet wins. This is why it’s essential to keep your styles organized and follow a consistent naming convention.
Mastering CSS specificity is key to writing clean, maintainable CSS. By understanding how browsers decide which rules to apply and using specific selectors strategically, you’ll be able to tame the style chaos and create websites that are both functional and visually stunning. When your styles refuse to cooperate, remember the power of specificity and take control of your stylesheet.
Key Takeaways: CSS specificity is a hierarchy that determines which rule takes precedence when multiple rules target the same element. Universal selectors have 0 points, while element selectors carry 1 point of specificity. Class, pseudo-class, or attribute selectors are worth 10 points and can override both universal and element selectors. IDs should be used sparingly due to their high specificity value. Inline styles have a 1,000-point value and trump everything except !important. The order of rules matters when specificity ties.