get-selector
Advanced tools
Generates a unique CSS selector that will match only the passed element.
Generates a unique CSS selector that will match only the passed element.
Browser-based utility to generate a unique selector for a given element. There are more comprehensive (and therefore often slower) solutions out there that will retrieve the smallest selector possible, but that comes at the price of complexity and usually accuracy.
This one prioritizes speed and accuracy. If you have an invalid DOM, results will vary.
Check if the element has an id attribute
id...Traverse the element's ancestry
id attribute.id is found...Build the selector to <html>
nth-child sub-selectors.Install via npm.
$ npm i get-selector --save
Require and call when needed. The function will return false if the passed element is not valid. Otherwise it will return the selector as a string.
var getSelector = require('get-selector');
console.log(getSelector(someElement));
// Outputs something like:
// #list-item-two > a:nth-child(1)
Build jsdoc-based documentation:
$ npm run docs
Run tests and coverage:
$ npm test
$ npm run coverage
All output below assumes the following markup:
<div class="demo">
<ul>
<li></li>
<li></li>
<li>
<a href="linkOne" class="linkOne"></a>
<a href="linkTwo" class="linkTwo"></a>
<a href="linkThree" class="linkThree"></a>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li class="itemOne first">
<a href="linkOne" class="linkOne"></a>
<a href="linkTwo" class="linkTwo"></a>
<a href="linkThree" class="linkThree"></a>
</li>
<li class="itemTwo" id="list-item-two">
<a href="linkOne" class="list-item-two-link-one"></a>
<a href="linkTwo"></a>
<a href="linkThree"></a>
<a></a>
<a href="linkOne" class="classOne classTwo classThree"></a>
<a href="linkTwo" target="someTarget2" rel="someRel" class="classOne classTwo classThree"></a>
<a href="linkThree" target="someTarget" rel="someRel" class="classOne classTwo classThree" id="linkZero"></a>
</li>
<li class="itemThree last">
<a href="linkOne" id="linkOne" class="classOne classTwo classThree"></a>
<a href="linkTwo" id="linkTwo"></a>
<a href="linkThree" id="linkThree"></a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
Basic usage:
getSelector(document.querySelector('.demo li.last'))
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2) > li:nth-child(3)
Invalid element:
getSelector(document.querySelector('#i-do-not-exist'))
false
Closest descendant with an ID attribute:
getSelector(document.querySelector('.demo .list-item-two-link-one'))
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(1)
Build selector from document Element if no ancestors have an id:
getSelector(document.querySelector('.demo .linkThree'))
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(3) > a:nth-child(3)
Build a unique selector for any DOM element:
.demo *
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(1)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(2)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(3)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(3) > a:nth-child(1)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(3) > a:nth-child(2)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(1) > li:nth-child(3) > a:nth-child(3)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2) > li:nth-child(1)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2) > li:nth-child(1) > a:nth-child(1)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2) > li:nth-child(1) > a:nth-child(2)
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2) > li:nth-child(1) > a:nth-child(3)
#list-item-two
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(1)
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(2)
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(3)
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(4)
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(5)
#list-item-two > a:nth-child(6)
#linkZero
html > body > main:nth-child(3) > div:nth-child(4) > ul:nth-child(2) > li:nth-child(3)
#linkOne
#linkTwo
#linkThree
FAQs
Generates a unique CSS selector that will match only the passed element.
The npm package get-selector receives a total of 0 weekly downloads. As such, get-selector popularity was classified as not popular.
We found that get-selector demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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