Specificity Calculator

A JavaScript module for calculating and comparing the specificity of CSS selectors. The module is used on the Specificity Calculator website.

Note that version 1 is a complete re-write with support for CSS Selectors Level 4, and has a different API than earlier versions.

calculate(selector)

Parameters

• selector: string - should be a valid CSS selector

Returns

A Specificity object with a type of Record<"A" | "B" | "C", number>.

Examples

 calculate("#id");
{
  A: 1,
  B: 0,
  C: 0
}

calculate(".classname");
{
  A: 0,
  B: 1,
  C: 0
}

calculate("element");
{
  A: 0,
  B: 0,
  C: 1
}

calculate('ul#nav li.active a');
{
  A: 1,
  B: 1,
  C: 3
}

compare(a, b)

Parameters

• a: Specificity object with a type of Record<"A" | "B" | "C", number>
• b: Specificity object with a type of Record<"A" | "B" | "C", number>

Returns

Returns a positive number if a has a higher specificity than b
Returns a negative number if a has a lower specificity than b
Returns 0 if a has the same specificity than b

Examples

 [
  "element",
  ".classname",
  "#id",
]
  .map(calculate)
  .sort(compare);

[ { A: 0, B: 0, C: 1 }, { A: 0, B: 1, C: 0 }, { A: 1, B: 0, C: 0 } ]

compareDesc(a, b)

Same as compare but returns the opposite value, for use in sorting specificity objects with the highest specificity first.