Please use only this documented API when working with the parser. Methods not documented here are subject to change at any point.
parser
functionThis is the module’s main entry point.
const parser = require('postcss-selector-parser');
parser([transform], [options])
Creates a new processor
instance
const processor = parser();
Or, with optional transform function
const transform = selectors => {
selectors.walkUniversals(selector => {
selector.remove();
});
};
const processor = parser(transform)
// Example
const result = processor.processSync('*.class');
// => .class
Arguments:
transform (function)
: Provide a function to work with the parsed AST.options (object)
: Provide default options for all calls on the returned Processor
.parser.attribute([props])
Creates a new attribute selector.
parser.attribute({attribute: 'href'});
// => [href]
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.className([props])
Creates a new class selector.
parser.className({value: 'button'});
// => .button
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.combinator([props])
Creates a new selector combinator.
parser.combinator({value: '+'});
// => +
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.Notes:
" "
). For descendant selectors with no
comments, additional space is now stored in node.spaces.before
. Depending
on the location of comments, additional spaces may be stored in
node.raws.spaces.before
, node.raws.spaces.after
, or node.raws.value
./deep/
and /for/
are parsed as combinators. The
node.value
is name after being unescaped and normalized as lowercase. The
original value for the combinator name is stored in node.raws.value
.parser.comment([props])
Creates a new comment.
parser.comment({value: '/* Affirmative, Dave. I read you. */'});
// => /* Affirmative, Dave. I read you. */
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.id([props])
Creates a new id selector.
parser.id({value: 'search'});
// => #search
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.nesting([props])
Creates a new nesting selector.
parser.nesting();
// => &
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.pseudo([props])
Creates a new pseudo selector.
parser.pseudo({value: '::before'});
// => ::before
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.root([props])
Creates a new root node.
parser.root();
// => (empty)
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.selector([props])
Creates a new selector node.
parser.selector();
// => (empty)
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.string([props])
Creates a new string node.
parser.string();
// => (empty)
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.tag([props])
Creates a new tag selector.
parser.tag({value: 'button'});
// => button
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.parser.universal([props])
Creates a new universal selector.
parser.universal();
// => *
Arguments:
props (object)
: The new node’s properties.node.type
A string representation of the selector type. It can be one of the following;
attribute
, class
, combinator
, comment
, id
, nesting
, pseudo
,
root
, selector
, string
, tag
, or universal
. Note that for convenience,
these constants are exposed on the main parser
as uppercased keys. So for
example you can get id
by querying parser.ID
.
parser.attribute({attribute: 'href'}).type;
// => 'attribute'
node.parent
Returns the parent node.
root.nodes[0].parent === root;
node.toString()
, String(node)
, or '' + node
Returns a string representation of the node.
const id = parser.id({value: 'search'});
console.log(String(id));
// => #search
node.next()
& node.prev()
Returns the next/previous child of the parent node.
const next = id.next();
if (next && next.type !== 'combinator') {
throw new Error('Qualified IDs are not allowed!');
}
node.replaceWith(node)
Replace a node with another.
const attr = selectors.first.first;
const className = parser.className({value: 'test'});
attr.replaceWith(className);
Arguments:
node
: The node to substitute the original with.node.remove()
Removes the node from its parent node.
if (node.type === 'id') {
node.remove();
}
node.clone()
Returns a copy of a node, detached from any parent containers that the original might have had.
const cloned = parser.id({value: 'search'});
String(cloned);
// => #search
node.isAtPosition(line, column)
Return a boolean
indicating whether this node includes the character at the
position of the given line and column. Returns undefined
if the nodes lack
sufficient source metadata to determine the position.
Arguments:
line
: 1-index based line number relative to the start of the selector.column
: 1-index based column number relative to the start of the selector.node.spaces
Extra whitespaces around the node will be moved into node.spaces.before
and
node.spaces.after
. So for example, these spaces will be moved as they have
no semantic meaning:
h1 , h2 {}
For descendent selectors, the value is always a single space.
h1 h2 {}
Additional whitespace is found in either the node.spaces.before
and node.spaces.after
depending on the presence of comments or other whitespace characters. If the actual whitespace does not start or end with a single space, the node’s raw value is set to the actual space(s) found in the source.
node.source
An object describing the node’s start/end, line/column source position.
Within the following CSS, the .bar
class node …
.foo,
.bar {}
… will contain the following source
object.
source: {
start: {
line: 2,
column: 3
},
end: {
line: 2,
column: 6
}
}
node.sourceIndex
The zero-based index of the node within the original source string.
Within the following CSS, the .baz
class node will have a sourceIndex
of 12
.
.foo, .bar, .baz {}
The root
, selector
, and pseudo
nodes have some helper methods for working
with their children.
container.nodes
An array of the container’s children.
// Input: h1 h2
selectors.at(0).nodes.length // => 3
selectors.at(0).nodes[0].value // => 'h1'
selectors.at(0).nodes[1].value // => ' '
container.first
& container.last
The first/last child of the container.
selector.first === selector.nodes[0];
selector.last === selector.nodes[selector.nodes.length - 1];
container.at(index)
Returns the node at position index
.
selector.at(0) === selector.first;
selector.at(0) === selector.nodes[0];
Arguments:
index
: The index of the node to return.container.atPosition(line, column)
Returns the node at the source position index
.
selector.at(0) === selector.first;
selector.at(0) === selector.nodes[0];
Arguments:
index
: The index of the node to return.container.index(node)
Return the index of the node within its container.
selector.index(selector.nodes[2]) // => 2
Arguments:
node
: A node within the current container.container.length
Proxy to the length of the container’s nodes.
container.length === container.nodes.length
container
Array iteratorsThe container class provides proxies to certain Array methods; these are:
container.map === container.nodes.map
container.reduce === container.nodes.reduce
container.every === container.nodes.every
container.some === container.nodes.some
container.filter === container.nodes.filter
container.sort === container.nodes.sort
Note that these methods only work on a container’s immediate children; recursive
iteration is provided by container.walk
.
container.each(callback)
Iterate the container’s immediate children, calling callback
for each child.
You may return false
within the callback to break the iteration.
let className;
selectors.each((selector, index) => {
if (selector.type === 'class') {
className = selector.value;
return false;
}
});
Note that unlike Array#forEach()
, this iterator is safe to use whilst adding
or removing nodes from the container.
Arguments:
callback (function)
: A function to call for each node, which receives node
and index
arguments.container.walk(callback)
Like container#each
, but will also iterate child nodes as long as they are
container
types.
selectors.walk((selector, index) => {
// all nodes
});
Arguments:
callback (function)
: A function to call for each node, which receives node
and index
arguments.This iterator is safe to use whilst mutating container.nodes
,
like container#each
.
container.walk
proxiesThe container class provides proxy methods for iterating over types of nodes, so that it is easier to write modules that target specific selectors. Those methods are:
container.walkAttributes
container.walkClasses
container.walkCombinators
container.walkComments
container.walkIds
container.walkNesting
container.walkPseudos
container.walkTags
container.walkUniversals
container.split(callback)
This method allows you to split a group of nodes by returning true
from
a callback. It returns an array of arrays, where each inner array corresponds
to the groups that you created via the callback.
// (input) => h1 h2>>h3
const list = selectors.first.split(selector => {
return selector.type === 'combinator';
});
// (node values) => [['h1', ' '], ['h2', '>>'], ['h3']]
Arguments:
callback (function)
: A function to call for each node, which receives node
as an argument.container.prepend(node)
& container.append(node)
Add a node to the start/end of the container. Note that doing so will set the parent property of the node to this container.
const id = parser.id({value: 'search'});
selector.append(id);
Arguments:
node
: The node to add.container.insertBefore(old, new)
& container.insertAfter(old, new)
Add a node before or after an existing node in a container:
selectors.walk(selector => {
if (selector.type !== 'class') {
const className = parser.className({value: 'theme-name'});
selector.parent.insertAfter(selector, className);
}
});
Arguments:
old
: The existing node in the container.new
: The new node to add before/after the existing node.container.removeChild(node)
Remove the node from the container. Note that you can also use
node.remove()
if you would like to remove just a single node.
selector.length // => 2
selector.remove(id)
selector.length // => 1;
id.parent // undefined
Arguments:
node
: The node to remove.container.removeAll()
or container.empty()
Remove all children from the container.
selector.removeAll();
selector.length // => 0
A root node represents a comma separated list of selectors. Indeed, all
a root’s toString()
method does is join its selector children with a ‘,’.
Other than this, it has no special functionality and acts like a container.
root.trailingComma
This will be set to true
if the input has a trailing comma, in order to
support parsing of legacy CSS hacks.
A selector node represents a single complex selector. For example, this
selector string h1 h2 h3, [href] > p
, is represented as two selector nodes.
It has no special functionality of its own.
A pseudo selector extends a container node; if it has any parameters of its
own (such as h1:not(h2, h3)
), they will be its children. Note that the pseudo
value
will always contain the colons preceding the pseudo identifier. This
is so that both :before
and ::before
are properly represented in the AST.
attribute.quoted
Returns true
if the attribute’s value is wrapped in quotation marks, false if it is not.
Remains undefined
if there is no attribute value.
[href=foo] /* false */
[href='foo'] /* true */
[href="foo"] /* true */
[href] /* undefined */
attribute.qualifiedAttribute
Returns the attribute name qualified with the namespace if one is given.
attribute.offsetOf(part)
Returns the offset of the attribute part specified relative to the
start of the node of the output string. This is useful in raising
error messages about a specific part of the attribute, especially
in combination with attribute.sourceIndex
.
Returns -1
if the name is invalid or the value doesn’t exist in this
attribute.
The legal values for part
are:
"ns"
- alias for “namespace”"namespace"
- the namespace if it exists."attribute"
- the attribute name"attributeNS"
- the start of the attribute or its namespace"operator"
- the match operator of the attribute"value"
- The value (string or identifier)"insensitive"
- the case insensitivity flagattribute.raws.unquoted
Returns the unquoted content of the attribute’s value.
Remains undefined
if there is no attribute value.
[href=foo] /* foo */
[href='foo'] /* foo */
[href="foo"] /* foo */
[href] /* undefined */
attribute.spaces
Like node.spaces
with the before
and after
values containing the spaces
around the element, the parts of the attribute can also have spaces before
and after them. The for each of attribute
, operator
, value
and
insensitive
there is corresponding property of the same nam in
node.spaces
that has an optional before
or after
string containing only
whitespace.
Note that corresponding values in attributes.raws.spaces
contain values
including any comments. If set, these values will override the
attribute.spaces
value. Take care to remove them if changing
attribute.spaces
.
attribute.raws
The raws object stores comments and other information necessary to re-render the node exactly as it was in the source.
If a comment is embedded within the identifiers for the namespace
, attribute
or value
then a property is placed in the raws for that value containing the full source of the propery including comments.
If a comment is embedded within the space between parts of the attribute then the raw for that space is set accordingly.
Setting an attribute’s property raws
value to be deleted.
For now, changing the spaces required also updating or removing any of the raws values that override them.
Example: [ /*before*/ href /* after-attr */ = /* after-operator */ te/*inside-value*/st/* wow */ /*omg*/i/*bbq*/ /*whodoesthis*/]
would parse as:
{
attribute: "href",
operator: "=",
value: "test",
spaces: {
before: '',
after: '',
attribute: { before: ' ', after: ' ' },
operator: { after: ' ' },
value: { after: ' ' },
insensitive: { after: ' ' }
},
raws: {
spaces: {
attribute: { before: ' /*before*/ ', after: ' /* after-attr */ ' },
operator: { after: ' /* after-operator */ ' },
value: { after: '/* wow */ /*omg*/' },
insensitive: { after: '/*bbq*/ /*whodoesthis*/' }
},
unquoted: 'test',
value: 'te/*inside-value*/st'
}
}
Processor
ProcessorOptions
lossless
- When true
, whitespace is preserved. Defaults to true
.updateSelector
- When true
, if any processor methods are passed a postcss
Rule
node instead of a string, then that Rule’s selector is updated
with the results of the processing. Defaults to true
.process|processSync(selectors, [options])
Processes the selectors
, returning a string from the result of processing.
Note: when the updateSelector
option is set, the rule’s selector
will be updated with the resulting string.
Example:
const parser = require("postcss-selector-parser");
const processor = parser();
let result = processor.processSync(' .class');
console.log(result);
// => .class
// Asynchronous operation
let promise = processor.process(' .class').then(result => {
console.log(result)
// => .class
});
// To have the parser normalize whitespace values, utilize the options
result = processor.processSync(' .class ', {lossless: false});
console.log(result);
// => .class
// For better syntax errors, pass a PostCSS Rule node.
const postcss = require('postcss');
rule = postcss.rule({selector: ' #foo > a, .class '});
processor.process(rule, {lossless: false, updateSelector: true}).then(result => {
console.log(result);
// => #foo>a,.class
console.log("rule:", rule.selector);
// => rule: #foo>a,.class
})
Arguments:
selectors (string|postcss.Rule)
: Either a selector string or a PostCSS Rule
node.[options] (object)
: Process optionsast|astSync(selectors, [options])
Like process()
and processSync()
but after
processing the selectors
these methods return the Root
node of the result
instead of a string.
Note: when the updateSelector
option is set, the rule’s selector
will be updated with the resulting string.
transform|transformSync(selectors, [options])
Like process()
and processSync()
but after
processing the selectors
these methods return the value returned by the
processor callback.
Note: when the updateSelector
option is set, the rule’s selector
will be updated with the resulting string.
The root node passed to the selector processor callback
has a method error(message, options)
that returns an
error object. This method should always be used to raise
errors relating to the syntax of selectors. The options
to this method are passed to postcss’s error constructor
(documentation).
let processor = (root) => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
root.walkClasses((classNode) => {
if (/^(.*)[-_]/.test(classNode.value)) {
let msg = "classes may not have underscores or dashes in them";
reject(root.error(msg, {
index: classNode.sourceIndex + RegExp.$1.length + 1,
word: classNode.value
}));
}
});
resolve();
});
};
const postcss = require("postcss");
const parser = require("postcss-selector-parser");
const selectorProcessor = parser(processor);
const plugin = postcss.plugin('classValidator', (options) => {
return (root) => {
let promises = [];
root.walkRules(rule => {
promises.push(selectorProcessor.process(rule));
});
return Promise.all(promises);
};
});
postcss(plugin()).process(`
.foo-bar {
color: red;
}
`.trim(), {from: 'test.css'}).catch((e) => console.error(e.toString()));
// CssSyntaxError: classValidator: ./test.css:1:5: classes may not have underscores or dashes in them
//
// > 1 | .foo-bar {
// | ^
// 2 | color: red;
// 3 | }
let processor = (root) => {
root.walkClasses((classNode) => {
if (/.*[-_]/.test(classNode.value)) {
let msg = "classes may not have underscores or dashes in them";
throw root.error(msg, {
index: classNode.sourceIndex,
word: classNode.value
});
}
});
};
const postcss = require("postcss");
const parser = require("postcss-selector-parser");
const selectorProcessor = parser(processor);
const plugin = postcss.plugin('classValidator', (options) => {
return (root) => {
root.walkRules(rule => {
selectorProcessor.processSync(rule);
});
};
});
postcss(plugin()).process(`
.foo-bar {
color: red;
}
`.trim(), {from: 'test.css'}).catch((e) => console.error(e.toString()));
// CssSyntaxError: classValidator: ./test.css:1:5: classes may not have underscores or dashes in them
//
// > 1 | .foo-bar {
// | ^
// 2 | color: red;
// 3 | }