# specimen

> CSS selector specificity calculator

Latest version **0.2.0** (published 2013-06-14) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install specimen
pnpm add specimen
yarn add specimen
bun add specimen
```

## Health

**Score 15/100 (F)** — status: abandoned.

Positive: no vulnerabilities.

Warnings: low downloads; no types; no esm support; pre 1.0.

Negative: abandoned; low maintenance score.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.2.0 |
| Published | 2013-06-14 |
| First published | 2013-06-10 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | none |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 10 |
| Author | Brett Stimmerman |
| Maintainers | brett |
| Keywords | css, specificity, selectors |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/specimen
- Repository: https://github.com/brettstimmerman/specimen
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/specimen

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## Recent versions

- 0.2.0 (latest) — 2013-06-14
- 0.1.0 — 2013-06-10
- 0.0.1 — 2013-06-10

## README

# specimen

A CSS [selector specificity](http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#specificity)
calculator.

# usage

```js
npm install specimen
```

```js
var specimen = require('specimen');

specimen('#home #warning p.message');
//=> [0, 2, 1, 1]
```

```js
specimen('#home #warning p.message, .footer a[rel=me]:hover');
//=> [ [0,2,1,1], [0,0,3,1] ]

specimen([
  '#home #warning p.message',
  '.footer a[rel=me]:hover'
]);
//=> [ [0,2,1,1], [0,0,3,1] ]
```

# api

## specimen(selectors)

Calculates the specificity of one or more CSS selectors. The `selectors`
argument is a string containing one or more selectors, or an array of selector
strings.

Returns an array representing the specificity, or `undefined` if a non-string
was given.

For multiple selectors, whether passed as string or array, an array of
specificities is returned. Returns `undefined` if all values in the array would
have been `undefined`.

# specimen's specificity

Specificity is represented as a four element array where each element
corresponds to a selector category.

The selector categories are, in order of most to least specific:

- **i:** inline styles
- **a:** IDs
- **b:** classes, attributes & psuedo-classes
- **c:** elements & pseudo-elements

## how it works

A a selector is split up into chunks and sorted into selector categories. The
categories are tallied, and the result is specificity: `[i, a, b, c]`.

```js
specimen('#home #warning p.message');
//=> [0, 2, 1, 1]
```

# style="!important"

Specimen calculates selector specificity only; it cannot know the specificity
of inline styles. It also cannot account for the use of `!important`.

# gigo

Specimen will attempt to calculate the CSS selector specificty of _any string_.
A result of `[0, 0, 0, 0]` means the string is probably not a CSS selector, or
contains only the universal selector `"*"` which has no affect on specificity.

# credits

Specimen is based heavily on
[keeganstreet/specificity](https://github.com/keeganstreet/specificity).

I needed a small specificity module for another project and Keegan Street's
`specificity` fit the bill perfectly. But I also needed a small project to help
curb my fear of programming. I decided I didn't need the additional information
that `specificity` provides. I settled on a simpler API and `specimen` was born.

---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/specimen · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._