Understanding the significance of the asterisk symbol in CSS

Is This CSS Syntax Correct?
css: the meaning of * mark

What is the function of * in CSS? I came across some code here that included it:

.center-wrapper{
  text-align: center;
}
.center-wrapper * {
  margin: 0 auto;
}

Could this be a mistake?

Answer №1

* represents the entirety of something.

Here, it signifies all elements within the .center-wrapper class.

Answer №2

It serves as a wildcard, matching all elements. For example in your case, it targets every element that is a descendant of elements with the "center-wrapper" class.

As per the official W3C documentation, this is known as a "universal selector", you can refer to http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#universal-selector:

The universal selector, written as a CSS qualified name [CSS3NAMESPACE] with an asterisk (* U+002A) representing the local name, stands for the qualified name of any element type.

Answer №3

  • signifies the entirety: all tags/elements within the document.

For instance, .main-container * denotes all content beneath each element with main-container class.

Answer №4

The symbol * represents the Universal selector. When using .center-wrapper *, it targets all elements that are descendants of .center-wrapper.

Answer №5

* represents that the specified styles should be implemented throughout the entire webpage. This is intentional and not an error.

Answer №6

This signifies that it is going to target all elements located in that specific section of the DOM.

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