What happens to CSS specificity when JavaScript is used to change CSS styles?

When JavaScript modifies CSS, what is the specificity of the applied styles?

For example:

document.getElementById("demo").style.color = "red";

Would this be deemed as inline styling?

Answer №1

How does CSS specificity change when JavaScript alters CSS?

The impact is identical to manually adjusting the CSS in the original source code rather than through JS.

document.getElementById("demo").style.color = "red";

When you modify styles using this method, it directly affects the element's attached styles.

<div id="demo" style="color: red">

This results in maximum specificity. (You count 1 if the declaration comes from a 'style' attribute instead of a rule with a selector)

If dynamic styling information was altered using JS to adjust a ruleset, then the specificity would vary.

Answer №2

When it comes to DOM nodes, the style property functions as a way to access and modify the corresponding style attribute.

To simplify, think of node.style.color = 'red' as similar to

node.setAttribute(node.getAttribute('style') + ' color: red')
*.

If we reframe the question, it becomes:

What is the level of CSS specificity when rules are applied in a style attribute?

The answer lies within the spec guidance provided by W3C

A selector's specificity is determined through the following steps:

...

Note: The specificity of styles defined within an HTML style attribute is outlined in CSS 2.1. [CSS21].

In reference to specifications

Referencing CSS 2.1:

The specificity of a selector is calculated via these steps:

  • Assign 1 if the declaration originates from a 'style' attribute rather than a rule with a selector, otherwise assign 0 (= a) (For HTML, where element "style" attributes serve as style sheet rules lacking selectors, a=1, b=0, c=0, d=0.)
  • Tally up the number of ID attributes in the selector (= b)
  • Tally up the number of other attributes and pseudo-classes in the selector (= c)
  • Tally up the number of element names and pseudo-elements in the selector (= d)

Added emphasis

Hence, the specific calculation for

document.getElementById("demo").style.color = "red";
results in 1,0,0,0


* Assuming no pre-existing rules in the style attribute.

Answer №3

When using JavaScript to modify the DOM tree (HTML file), you are not directly modifying the CSS file, so the styling changes are considered inline.

In this context, inline styling is generally accepted and not criticized as it would be for a static HTML document.

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