CSS only get text

Question

I'm trying to find some text inside an element using a css selector, but not include the children of the element. For example:

<div id="information">
 This is the text I need
 <div>I don't want this text</div>
 <span>I also don't want this</span>
</div>

Any ideas?

NOTE: I'm parsing a page so I don't have control over the elements

That is strange. CSS was made to give styles to elements, and you can't set the style of a text. Maybe you are parsing a page and have other selectors available, like xpath? — fotanus, Dec 02 '13 at 19:00
This is not possible with CSS alone, sorry. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1520429/css-3-content-selector — Patrick Moore, Dec 02 '13 at 19:00
I'm parsing a page so I don't have control over the elements — Rob, Dec 02 '13 at 19:06
@Rob if you are parsing a page, use xpath, then you can get the text. — fotanus, Dec 02 '13 at 19:07
@fotanus do you know off hand what the xpath command would be to get that text? — Rob, Dec 02 '13 at 19:08
@Rob see this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5033955/xpath-select-text-node — Boldewyn, Dec 02 '13 at 19:09

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 19:22

3

Apparently not possible using CSS Selectors. With XPath though, if someone is interested:

//div[@id='information']/text()

answered Dec 02 '13 at 19:22

Rob

7,028
15
63
95

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 19:33

2

So you want the loose text inside of #information but you don't want the div and the span? Seems quite simple:

#information {
    /* property values */
}

#information > div {
    display: none; /* removes content of child div */
}

#information > span {
    display: none; /* removes content of child span */
}

I guess you don't really even have to use the child (>) selector, too.

answered Dec 02 '13 at 19:33

Jace Cotton

2,004
1
21
38

I don't think this "gives" you that content... I mean it doesn't select or store it so that you can do something with it. I think that's what the OP wants...I could be wrong. Jace, do you have any idea how to do that - I'd like to know for myself. – Flak DiNenno Nov 23 '21 at 11:09

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 19:30

There is no CSS selector to select just the text content of an element. There is nothing illogical about the idea (CSS could have a pseudo-element for the purpose), but currently there is no specification or even draft on such matters.

What you can do is to set styles on an element and then override them on any child element, possibly using a selector like #information * that matches all descendant elements or #information > * that matches all child elements.

CSS only get text

3 Answers3

Linked