#     
## Overview

The **asterisk (*)**, also known as the #key# CSS: Cascading Style Sheets #key# universal selector, is used to select all items in an HTML file. **CSS selectors** are used to select the sections of your web page you wish to style.

### Example 1

In the first result, all of the text is in black font color with a purple background, as our code overwrites the default background color for all HTML elements.


<html>
 <head>
 </head>
 <body>
   <div id="content"/>
   <h1>Example of CSS.</h2>
<h2>Example of grouping of CSS universal selectors.</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec a urna elit. Integer malesuada tempus enim nec rhoncus.</p>
 </body>
</html>

* {
color: 
black; /* color of all the elements should be black */
background: 
purple; /* purple background is set for all the elements */
}

codemirror

### Example 2
In the second result, all of the text is the same size, as our code overwrites the default font-size for all HTML elements.


<html>
 <head>
 </head>
 <body>
   <div id="content"/>
   <h1>Example of CSS.</h2>
<h2>Example of grouping of CSS universal selectors.</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec a urna elit. Integer malesuada tempus enim nec rhoncus.</p>

 </body>
</html>

* {
color: 
black; /* color of all the elements should be black */

background: 
purple; /* purple background is set for all the elements */

font-size:14px;
}


### Example 3
Let’s say that you have a document that contains the following HTML elements: 
* An H1 
* Paragraphs 
* A table 
* Pre-formatted text 
* An unordered list 

Then, use the declaration below to make sure all elements are purple. 

Use the previous declaration instead of the code below to simplify your code.

BODY, H1, P, TABLE, TR, TD, TH, PRE, UL, LI {color: purple;}

## Browser Compatibility

Browser Compatibility is the manner in which a web page looks in different web browsers. Different browsers read the website code differently. In other words, Chrome will render a website differently than Firefox or Edge will. Thus, it is important to know in which browser, the code written by a programmer is acceptable. 
![](/api/edpresso/shot/6128280675024896/image/5263904346734592)

The table above shows that the CSS universal selector is supported by Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari.


What is the use of asterisk (*) selector in CSS ?

The asterisk (*) CSS universal selector is used to style all HTML elements and is supported across major browsers.

What is the use of asterisk (*) selector in CSS ?

Overview

Example of CSS universal selectors

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Browser Compatibility