css shorthand property

`border-left` CSS property

The border-left shorthand CSS property sets all the properties of an element’s left border.

Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.

border-left: solid;

border-left: dashed red;

border-left: 1rem solid;

border-left: thick double #32a1ce;

border-left: 4mm ridge rgb(211 220 50 / 0.6);

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    This is a box with a border around it.
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  background-color: #eeeeee;
  color: darkmagenta;
  padding: 0.75em;
  width: 80%;
  height: 100px;
}

Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

Syntax

border-left: 1px;
border-left: 2px dotted;
border-left: medium dashed blue;

/* Global values */
border-left: inherit;
border-left: initial;
border-left: revert;
border-left: revert-layer;
border-left: unset;

The three values of the shorthand property can be specified in any order, and one or two of them may be omitted.

Values

<br-width>
- : See border-left-width.
<br-style>
- : See border-left-style.
<color>
- : See border-left-color.

Description

As with all shorthand properties, border-left always sets the values of all of the properties that it can set, even if they are not specified. It sets those that are not specified to their default values. Consider the following code:

border-left-style: dotted;
border-left: thick green;

It is actually the same as this one:

border-left-style: dotted;
border-left: none thick green;

The value of border-left-style given before border-left is ignored. Since the default value of border-left-style is none, not specifying the border-style part results in no border.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

Examples

Applying a left border

HTML

<div>This box has a border on the left side.</div>

CSS

div {
  border-left: 4px dashed blue;
  background-color: gold;
  height: 100px;
  width: 100px;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-align: center;
}

Results