What Is Caret Symbol ^ Used for in CSS When Selecting Elements

What is caret symbol ^ used for in css when selecting elements?

The circumflex character “^” as such has no defined meaning in CSS. The two-character operator “^=” can be used in attribute selectors. Generally, [attr^=val] refers to those elements that have the attribute attr with a value that starts with val.

Thus, a[href^=tel] refers to such a elements that have the attribute href with a value that starts with tel. It is probably meant to distinguish telephone number links from other links; it’s not quite adequate for that, since the selector also matches e.g. <a href="tel.html">...</a> but it is probably meant to match only links with tel: as the protocol part. So a[href^="tel:"] would be safer.

What is the difference between pipe (|) and caret (^) attribute selectors?

Caret (^): selects an element (<h1>) where the value of the specified attribute (rel) starts with a certain value (val):

h1[rel^="val"] { /** formatting */ }

h1[rel^="friend"] { color: blue; }

<h1 rel="friend-external-sandwich">I'm Blue.</h1><h1 rel="friend2-external-sandwich">I'm Blue.</h1><h1 rel="external-sandwich">I'm Black.</h1>

What does ^= (caret equals) mean in jquery?

[attr^=val] a CSS selector that means:

Element that has an attribute named attr with a value that starts with val.

It's similar to [attr$=val], which does the opposite, looking for an attribute ending with val.

If already using the contains selector, why use the starts-with selector

It is not a redundant selector. It is possibly used to select the elements with icon- class even if it is second one in the class list like in the below snippet.

[class^="icon-"] will only select the elements whose value for class attribute starts with icon-.

[class*=" icon-"] will select all elements that contain a class with icon- in its list of classes. Note how they have specifically used a space before.

Quoting CodingWithSpike's comment

[class*="icon-"] without a space would also match undesired classes like not-icon-1 or lexicon-name which is likely why the leading space is included.

In essence the selector group is used to select all elements who have at least one class which begins with icon- as part of their class list.

[class^="icon-"] {  color: green;}[class*=" icon-"] {  color: red;}[class^="icon-"],[class*=" icon-"] {  background: beige;}
[class*="icon-"]{  border: 1px solid brown;}

<div class="icon-1">Only Icon class</div><div class="a icon-1">Some other class before</div><div class="a not-icon-1">Some other class before</div>

How is the greater than or character used in CSS?

It's a CSS child selector. P > SPAN means applying the style that follows to all SPAN tags that are children of a P tag.

Note that "child" means "immediate descendant", not just any descendant. P SPAN is a descendant selector, applying the style that follows to all SPAN tags that are children of a P tag or recursively children of any other tag that is a child/descendant of a P tag. P > SPAN only applies to SPAN tags that are children of a P tag.

What is a caret exactly

A caret is an grapic placed by the UI to indicate where the current text insertion point is located. See the Wikipedia article that discusses it.

Typically a caret isn't a graphical design element, but is managed by the system underlying it. Only some input elements use a caret, specifically those that allow text input by the user. This is similar and closely related to the way that some UIs will show the current input field by providing a highlight or coloring around the field.

Each input field maintains its own current insertion point, and the caret is displayed at the current insertion point for the currently selected edit field, only. There's only ever one caret in a graphical system, and it's used as cue to the user of where typed characters would be placed. The caret, properly placed, is often shown between characters, but may also be shown atop the current character, as well.

The user manipulates the caret position by doing any of a few actions:

use the arrow keys to change the insertion point
add or delete characters in the current input field
switch to another input field (e.g. TAB to the next field)

The caret can usually be manipulated programmatically by these types of API calls to set insertion position, which typically requires an input field and an index to the insertion point.

The caret may be any shape defined by the system, or any shape that you choose to display. Some carets include an animation, as well, such as blinking, cycling colors, or even bouncing.

What is the difference between ' ' and a space in CSS selectors?

A > B will only select B that are direct children to A (that is, there are no other elements inbetween).

A B will select any B that are inside A, even if there are other elements between them.

CSS ' ' selector; what is it?

`>` selects immediate children

For example, if you have nested divs like such:

<div class='outer'>
    <div class="middle">
        <div class="inner">...</div>
    </div>
    <div class="middle">
        <div class="inner">...</div>
    </div>
</div>

and you declare a css rule in your stylesheet like such:

.outer > div {
    ...
}

your rules will apply only to those divs that have a class of "middle" since those divs are direct descendants (immediate children) of elements with class "outer" (unless, of course, you declare other, more specific rules overriding these rules). See fiddle.

div {  border: 1px solid black;  padding: 10px;}.outer > div {  border: 1px solid orange;}

<div class='outer'>  div.outer - This is the parent.  <div class="middle">    div.middle - This is an immediate child of "outer". This will receive the orange border.    <div class="inner">div.inner - This is an immediate child of "middle". This will not receive the orange border.</div>  </div>  <div class="middle">    div.middle - This is an immediate child of "outer". This will receive the orange border.    <div class="inner">div.inner - This is an immediate child of "middle". This will not receive the orange border.</div>  </div></div>
<p>Without Words</p>
<div class='outer'>  <div class="middle">    <div class="inner">...</div>  </div>  <div class="middle">    <div class="inner">...</div>  </div></div>

CSS attribute start with caret

The styles with the caret in front of them don't get applied. So it might be a way to comment out CSS styles in this case, without having to use entire HTML comments. It isn't a standard way to do it though.

(Example)

The caret character in CSS does have meaning, the "Begins With" Attribute selector.

It lets you target an element in your CSS based on whether the attribute’s value begins with a given string.

E[foo]  an E element with a "foo" attribute
E[foo="bar"]    an E element whose "foo" attribute value is exactly equal to "bar"
E[foo~="bar"]   an E element whose "foo" attribute value is a list of whitespace-separated values, one of which is exactly equal to "bar"
E[foo^="bar"]   an E element whose "foo" attribute value begins exactly with the string "bar"
E[foo$="bar"]   an E element whose "foo" attribute value ends exactly with the string "bar"
E[foo*="bar"]   an E element whose "foo" attribute value contains the substring "bar"

However, in your case, the caret isn't functioning as a selector.

What Is Caret Symbol ^ Used for in CSS When Selecting Elements