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web api interface

CSSRuleList

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A CSSRuleList represents an ordered collection of read-only CSSRule objects.

While the CSSRuleList object is read-only, and cannot be directly modified, it is considered a live object, as the content can change over time.

To edit the underlying rules returned by CSSRule objects, use insertRule() and deleteRule(), which are methods of CSSStyleSheet.

This interface was an attempt to create an unmodifiable list and only continues to be supported to not break code that’s already using it. Modern APIs represent list structures using types based on JavaScript arrays, thus making many array methods available, and at the same time imposing additional semantics on their usage (such as making their items read-only).

These historical reasons do not mean that you as a developer should avoid CSSRuleList. You don’t create CSSRuleList objects yourself, but you get them from APIs such as cssRules and cssRules, and these APIs are not deprecated. However, be careful of the semantic differences from a real array.

Instance properties

  • length Read only
    • : Returns an integer representing the number of CSSRule objects in the collection.

Instance methods

Examples

In the following example there is a stylesheet with three rules. Using cssRules returns a CSSRuleList, which is printed to the console.

The number of rules in the list is printed to the console using length. The first CSSRule can be returned by using 0 as the parameter for item, in the example this will return the rules set for the body selector.

CSS

body {
  font-family:
    system-ui,
    -apple-system,
    sans-serif;
  margin: 2em;
}

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, 200px);
}

.container > * {
  background-color: #3740ff;
  color: white;
}

JavaScript

let myRules = document.styleSheets[0].cssRules;
console.log(myRules);
console.log(myRules.length);
console.log(myRules[0]);

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibilityCompatibility data is available on the canonical MDN page.

See also