CSS :optional

By  on  

A decade ago HTML and CSS added the ability to, at least signal, validation of form fields. The required attribute helped inform users which fields were required, while pattern allowed developers to provide a regular expression to match against an <input>'s value. Targeting required fields and validation values with just CSS and HTML was very useful.

Did you know that CSS provides :optional to allow you to style form elements that aren't required?

input:optional, select:optional, textarea:optional {
  border: 1px solid #eee;
}

[required] {
  border: 1px solid red;
}

In a sense, it feels like :optional represents :not([required]), but :optional is limited to just form fields.

Recent Features

  • By
    Create a CSS Cube

    CSS cubes really showcase what CSS has become over the years, evolving from simple color and dimension directives to a language capable of creating deep, creative visuals.  Add animation and you've got something really neat.  Unfortunately each CSS cube tutorial I've read is a bit...

  • By
    An Interview with Eric Meyer

    Your early CSS books were instrumental in pushing my love for front end technologies. What was it about CSS that you fell in love with and drove you to write about it? At first blush, it was the simplicity of it as compared to the table-and-spacer...

Incredible Demos

Discussion

  1. It’s probably more like :not(:required), right?

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!