| # css-select [](https://npmjs.org/package/css-select) [](http://travis-ci.com/fb55/css-select) [](https://npmjs.org/package/css-select) [](https://coveralls.io/r/fb55/css-select) | |
| A CSS selector compiler and engine | |
| ## What? | |
| As a **compiler**, css-select turns CSS selectors into functions that tests if | |
| elements match them. | |
| As an **engine**, css-select looks through a DOM tree, searching for elements. | |
| Elements are tested "from the top", similar to how browsers execute CSS | |
| selectors. | |
| In its default configuration, css-select queries the DOM structure of the | |
| [`domhandler`](https://github.com/fb55/domhandler) module (also known as | |
| htmlparser2 DOM). To query alternative DOM structures, see [`Options`](#options) | |
| below. | |
| **Features:** | |
| - π¬ Full implementation of CSS3 selectors, as well as most CSS4 selectors | |
| - π§ͺ Partial implementation of jQuery/Sizzle extensions (see | |
| [cheerio-select](https://github.com/cheeriojs/cheerio-select) for the | |
| remaining selectors) | |
| - π§βπ¬ High test coverage, including the full test suites from | |
| [`Sizzle`](https://github.com/jquery/sizzle), | |
| [`Qwery`](https://github.com/ded/qwery) and | |
| [`NWMatcher`](https://github.com/dperini/nwmatcher/) and . | |
| - π₯Ό Reliably great performance | |
| ## Why? | |
| Most CSS engines written in JavaScript execute selectors left-to-right. That | |
| means thet execute every component of the selector in order, from left to right. | |
| As an example: For the selector `a b`, these engines will first query for `a` | |
| elements, then search these for `b` elements. (That's the approach of eg. | |
| [`Sizzle`](https://github.com/jquery/sizzle), | |
| [`Qwery`](https://github.com/ded/qwery) and | |
| [`NWMatcher`](https://github.com/dperini/nwmatcher/).) | |
| While this works, it has some downsides: Children of `a`s will be checked | |
| multiple times; first, to check if they are also `a`s, then, for every superior | |
| `a` once, if they are `b`s. Using | |
| [Big O notation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation), that would be | |
| `O(n^(k+1))`, where `k` is the number of descendant selectors (that's the space | |
| in the example above). | |
| The far more efficient approach is to first look for `b` elements, then check if | |
| they have superior `a` elements: Using big O notation again, that would be | |
| `O(n)`. That's called right-to-left execution. | |
| And that's what css-select does β and why it's quite performant. | |
| ## How does it work? | |
| By building a stack of functions. | |
| _Wait, what?_ | |
| Okay, so let's suppose we want to compile the selector `a b`, for right-to-left | |
| execution. We start by _parsing_ the selector. This turns the selector into an | |
| array of the building blocks. That's what the | |
| [`css-what`](https://github.com/fb55/css-what) module is for, if you want to | |
| have a look. | |
| Anyway, after parsing, we end up with an array like this one: | |
| ```js | |
| [ | |
| { type: "tag", name: "a" }, | |
| { type: "descendant" }, | |
| { type: "tag", name: "b" }, | |
| ]; | |
| ``` | |
| (Actually, this array is wrapped in another array, but that's another story, | |
| involving commas in selectors.) | |
| Now that we know the meaning of every part of the selector, we can compile it. | |
| That is where things become interesting. | |
| The basic idea is to turn every part of the selector into a function, which | |
| takes an element as its only argument. The function checks whether a passed | |
| element matches its part of the selector: If it does, the element is passed to | |
| the next function representing the next part of the selector. That function does | |
| the same. If an element is accepted by all parts of the selector, it _matches_ | |
| the selector and double rainbow ALL THE WAY. | |
| As said before, we want to do right-to-left execution with all the big O | |
| improvements. That means elements are passed from the rightmost part of the | |
| selector (`b` in our example) to the leftmost (~~which would be `c`~~ of course | |
| `a`). | |
| For traversals, such as the _descendant_ operating the space between `a` and | |
| `b`, we walk up the DOM tree, starting from the element passed as argument. | |
| _//TODO: More in-depth description. Implementation details. Build a spaceship._ | |
| ## API | |
| ```js | |
| const CSSselect = require("css-select"); | |
| ``` | |
| **Note:** css-select throws errors when invalid selectors are passed to it. This | |
| is done to aid with writing css selectors, but can be unexpected when processing | |
| arbitrary strings. | |
| #### `CSSselect.selectAll(query, elems, options)` | |
| Queries `elems`, returns an array containing all matches. | |
| - `query` can be either a CSS selector or a function. | |
| - `elems` can be either an array of elements, or a single element. If it is an | |
| element, its children will be queried. | |
| - `options` is described below. | |
| Aliases: `default` export, `CSSselect.iterate(query, elems)`. | |
| #### `CSSselect.compile(query, options)` | |
| Compiles the query, returns a function. | |
| #### `CSSselect.is(elem, query, options)` | |
| Tests whether or not an element is matched by `query`. `query` can be either a | |
| CSS selector or a function. | |
| #### `CSSselect.selectOne(query, elems, options)` | |
| Arguments are the same as for `CSSselect.selectAll(query, elems)`. Only returns | |
| the first match, or `null` if there was no match. | |
| ### Options | |
| All options are optional. | |
| - `xmlMode`: When enabled, tag names will be case-sensitive. Default: `false`. | |
| - `rootFunc`: The last function in the stack, will be called with the last | |
| element that's looked at. | |
| - `adapter`: The adapter to use when interacting with the backing DOM | |
| structure. By default it uses the `domutils` module. | |
| - `context`: The context of the current query. Used to limit the scope of | |
| searches. Can be matched directly using the `:scope` pseudo-class. | |
| - `relativeSelector`: By default, selectors are relative to the `context`, | |
| which means that no parent elements of the context will be matched. (Eg. | |
| `a b c` with context `b` will never give any results.) If `relativeSelector` | |
| is set to `false`, selectors won't be | |
| [absolutized](http://www.w3.org/TR/selectors4/#absolutizing) and selectors | |
| can test for parent elements outside of the `context`. | |
| - `cacheResults`: Allow css-select to cache results for some selectors, | |
| sometimes greatly improving querying performance. Disable this if your | |
| document can change in between queries with the same compiled selector. | |
| Default: `true`. | |
| - `pseudos`: A map of pseudo-class names to functions or strings. | |
| #### Custom Adapters | |
| A custom adapter must match the interface described | |
| [here](https://github.com/fb55/css-select/blob/1aa44bdd64aaf2ebdfd7f338e2e76bed36521957/src/types.ts#L6-L96). | |
| You may want to have a look at [`domutils`](https://github.com/fb55/domutils) to | |
| see the default implementation, or at | |
| [`css-select-browser-adapter`](https://github.com/nrkn/css-select-browser-adapter/blob/master/index.js) | |
| for an implementation backed by the DOM. | |
| ## Supported selectors | |
| _As defined by CSS 4 and / or jQuery._ | |
| - [Selector lists](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Selector_list) | |
| (`,`) | |
| - [Universal](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Universal_selectors) | |
| (`*`) | |
| - [Type](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Type_selectors) | |
| (`<tagname>`) | |
| - [Descendant](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Descendant_combinator) | |
| (` `) | |
| - [Child](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Child_combinator) | |
| (`>`) | |
| - Parent (`<`) | |
| - [Adjacent sibling](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Adjacent_sibling_combinator) | |
| (`+`) | |
| - [General sibling](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/General_sibling_combinator) | |
| (`~`) | |
| - [Attribute](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Attribute_selectors) | |
| (`[attr=foo]`), with supported comparisons: | |
| - `[attr]` (existential) | |
| - `=` | |
| - `~=` | |
| - `|=` | |
| - `*=` | |
| - `^=` | |
| - `$=` | |
| - `!=` | |
| - `i` and `s` can be added after the comparison to make the comparison | |
| case-insensitive or case-sensitive (eg. `[attr=foo i]`). If neither is | |
| supplied, css-select will follow the HTML spec's | |
| [case-sensitivity rules](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics-other.html#case-sensitivity-of-selectors). | |
| - Pseudos: | |
| - [`:not`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:not) | |
| - [`:contains`](https://api.jquery.com/contains-selector) | |
| - `:icontains` (case-insensitive version of `:contains`) | |
| - [`:has`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:has) | |
| - [`:root`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:root) | |
| - [`:empty`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:empty) | |
| - [`:parent`](https://api.jquery.com/parent-selector) | |
| - [`:first-child`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:first-child), | |
| [`:last-child`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:last-child), | |
| [`:first-of-type`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:first-of-type), | |
| [`:last-of-type`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:last-of-type) | |
| - [`:only-of-type`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:only-of-type), | |
| [`:only-child`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:only-child) | |
| - [`:nth-child`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:nth-child), | |
| [`:nth-last-child`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:nth-last-child), | |
| [`:nth-of-type`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:nth-of-type), | |
| [`:nth-last-of-type`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:nth-last-of-type), | |
| - [`:link`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:link), | |
| [`:any-link`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:any-link) | |
| - [`:visited`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:visited), | |
| [`:hover`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:hover), | |
| [`:active`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:active) | |
| (these depend on optional `Adapter` methods, so these will only match | |
| elements if implemented in `Adapter`) | |
| - [`:selected`](https://api.jquery.com/selected-selector), | |
| [`:checked`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:checked) | |
| - [`:enabled`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:enabled), | |
| [`:disabled`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:disabled) | |
| - [`:required`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:required), | |
| [`:optional`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:optional) | |
| - [`:header`](https://api.jquery.com/header-selector), | |
| [`:button`](https://api.jquery.com/button-selector), | |
| [`:input`](https://api.jquery.com/input-selector), | |
| [`:text`](https://api.jquery.com/text-selector), | |
| [`:checkbox`](https://api.jquery.com/checkbox-selector), | |
| [`:file`](https://api.jquery.com/file-selector), | |
| [`:password`](https://api.jquery.com/password-selector), | |
| [`:reset`](https://api.jquery.com/reset-selector), | |
| [`:radio`](https://api.jquery.com/radio-selector) etc. | |
| - [`:is`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:is), plus its | |
| legacy alias `:matches` | |
| - [`:scope`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:scope) | |
| (uses the context from the passed options) | |
| --- | |
| License: BSD-2-Clause | |
| ## Security contact information | |
| To report a security vulnerability, please use the | |
| [Tidelift security contact](https://tidelift.com/security). Tidelift will | |
| coordinate the fix and disclosure. | |
| ## `css-select` for enterprise | |
| Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription | |
| The maintainers of `css-select` and thousands of other packages are working with | |
| Tidelift to deliver commercial support and maintenance for the open source | |
| dependencies you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and | |
| improve code health, while paying the maintainers of the exact dependencies you | |
| use. | |
| [Learn more.](https://tidelift.com/subscription/pkg/npm-css-select?utm_source=npm-css-select&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=enterprise&utm_term=repo) | |