Web/CSS/Selector list

The CSS selector list (,) selects all the matching nodes.

/* Selects all matching elements */
span,
div {
  border: red 2px solid;
}

To reduce the size of style sheets, one can group selectors in comma-separated lists.

Syntax

element, element, element { style properties }

Examples

Single Line Grouping

Grouping selectors in a single line using a comma-separated lists.

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-family: helvetica; }

Multi Line Grouping

Grouping selectors in a multiple lines using a comma-separated lists.

#main,
.content,
article {
  font-size: 1.1em;
}

Selector list invalidation

A downside to using selector lists is that the following aren't equivalent:

h1 { font-family: sans-serif }
h2:maybe-unsupported { font-family: sans-serif }
h3 { font-family: sans-serif }

h1, h2:maybe-unsupported, h3 { font-family: sans-serif }

This is because a single unsupported selector in a selector list invalidates the whole rule.

A way to remedy this us to use the :is() or :where() selectors, which accept a forgiving selector list. This will ignore invalid selectors in the list but accept those which are valid.

h1 { font-family: sans-serif }
h2:maybe-unsupported { font-family: sans-serif }
h3 { font-family: sans-serif }

:is(h1, h2:maybe-unsupported, h3) { font-family: sans-serif }

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Selectors Level 4The definition of 'Selector Lists' in that specification.	Working Draft	Renamed to "selector list"
CSS Level 1The definition of 'grouping' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
Selector list (`,`)	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support 3.5	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support