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CSS Declaration Block

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A CSS declaration block is an ordered collection of CSS properties and values. It is represented in the DOM as a CSSStyleDeclaration.

Each property and value pairing is known as a CSS declaration. The CSS declaration block has the following associated properties:

  • computed flag
    • : Set if the CSSStyleDeclaration object is a computed rather than specified style. Unset by default.
  • declarations
  • parent CSS rule
    • : The CSSRule that the CSS declaration block is associated with, otherwise null.
  • owner node
    • : The element that the CSS declaration block is associated with, otherwise null.
  • updating flag
    • : Set when the CSS declaration block is updating the owner node’s style attribute.

When a CSSStyleDeclaration is returned by a CSS Object Model (CSSOM) interface these properties are set to appropriate values as defined by the specification.

Basic example

The following example shows a CSS rule with a declaration block for the <h1> element. The CSS declaration block is the lines between the curly braces.

h1 {
  margin: 0 auto;
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", "Arial", sans-serif;
  font-style: italic;
  color: rebeccapurple;
}

We can return a CSSStyleDeclaration representing this CSS declaration block using style.

let myRules = document.styleSheets[0].cssRules;
let rule = myRules[0]; // a CSSStyleRule
console.log(rule.style); // a CSSStyleDeclaration object

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.