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CSS CSS Basics (2014) Basic Selectors Intro to Selectors

Posted by Cam Treschuk
Cam Treschuk
7,378 Points

universal selectors

Couldn't you just select the body instead of using a universal selector?

1 Answer

Austin Whipple
Austin Whipple
29,725 Points
Austin Whipple
Austin Whipple
29,725 Points

Certainly could. However, selecting the body applies styles ONLY to the body element while the universal selector * applies styles to EVERY element on the page. It's a powerful selector, so use with caution.

Occasionally the overview videos don't use the optimum selector for a situation, but rather one they'd like to explain at that moment. When coding in the wild, you'll appreciate the knowledge to be able to pick the one that works best for your use case.

Adnan Pozegić
Adnan Pozegić
12,789 Points
Adnan Pozegić
Adnan Pozegić
12,789 Points

To add to this: You may be confused because some properties are inherited, while others are not. For example, setting a font-family: Helvetica; on the body element will make all other elements inherit that font-family value (if they don't have their own font-family property set).

Austin Whipple
Austin Whipple
29,725 Points
Austin Whipple
Austin Whipple
29,725 Points

Good point, Adnan! I should have mentioned inherited properties. Here's a brief MDN reference article on inheritance. Hard to find a complete and current list of all inherited properties, so definitely check the individual property pages to check. Most inherited properties relate to fonts, lists, and tables. Not many deal with layout.