hi all
I was hoping some lovely person could clear something up for me.
I have been trying for many hours to get a menu list to line up correctly within a containing div. However, it wasn't happening! The list would only position itself below the containing div and not inside it no matter what I tried.
In desperation I aquired someone elses working css and pasted it into mine.
This cleared up the problem! When I stripped out the superfluous code I found the code that I needed was:
* {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px;
MARGIN: 0px;
PADDING-LEFT: 0px;
PADDING-RIGHT: 0px;
PADDING-TOP: 0px
}

So my question is what does the little * do for me and how does it know what to do. I seem to be able to put it anywhere in my css and it still goes on working! How does it know what to link to? Why can't I just put that info in my containing div? It's all very strange

cheers in advance
Burnsie

I'm not a expert in CSS but i thought * is a universal selector that matches the name of any element

More info about it http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/selector.html

It is indeed, not only any name as in ID but also Class, I believe,

It is not used too much usually as very few elements will all share one property on most websites,

if you want to select specific elements you can use # (for id) and . (for class) such as:

.paragraphs

#paragraph1

for more info on these selectors: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_id_class.asp

That's it

It is a "wildcard"

The

* {
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
}

code, is known as a "CSS reset" and sets the padding and margins of ALL elements to 0.

Just a little add-on, its not a "wildcard"

You cant use it like:

.img1,.img2,.img3, {z-index: 99;}

.img* {z-index: 99;}

If it was a "wildcard" then that would be possible.

I see...but why can't I put that stuff in the list's container div? why do I need to use the little * thingamy?

Research CSS reset.

It's a bigger issue with different browsers applying different margins and padding by default. Using it once for all elements start them all equal.

Originally Posted by TheSir

Just a little add-on, its not a "wildcard"

You cant use it like:

.img1,.img2,.img3, {z-index: 99;}

.img* {z-index: 99;}

If it was a "wildcard" then that would be possible.

really? then you should read this
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/...hild-selector/

Whats your point? That site is talking about using * as a universal selector which it is in CSS, not as a wildcard.

CSS just doesn't have wildcards.

because that link shows it being used as a wilcard

i.e. in the sense of your ".img* (z-index: 99 according to what your wrote
"If it was a "wildcard" then that would be possible." if it's possible then it's a wildcard.

that's my point

Maybe you dont understand how a wildcard normally works but they dont use it as a wildcard.
Normally a wildcard means that for example * is the same as anything not everything like a universal selector.

So new example:
.img1 and .img10 and .imgwhatever are the same as .img* if CSS had a wilcard, and it wont affect .img. But again CSS doesnt have wildcards, so thats just not possible in CSS.

ah you mean like that. ok now i get you. yes you're right then, it's not a wildcard
phew glad we got that sorted; i was starting to get confused

Shall I qualify my statement with

It is a wildcard selector NOT a wildcard character replacement