CSSStyleSheet

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2015.

The CSSStyleSheet interface represents a single CSS stylesheet, and lets you inspect and modify the list of rules contained in the stylesheet. It inherits properties and methods from its parent, StyleSheet.

A stylesheet consists of a collection of CSSRule objects representing each of the rules in the stylesheet. The rules are contained in a CSSRuleList, which can be obtained from the stylesheet's cssRules property.

For example, one rule might be a CSSStyleRule object containing a style such as:

css

h1,
h2 {
  font-size: 16pt;
}

Another rule might be an at-rule such as @import or @media, and so forth.

See the Obtaining a StyleSheet section for the various ways a CSSStyleSheet object can be obtained. A CSSStyleSheet object can also be directly constructed. The constructor, and the CSSStyleSheet.replace(), and CSSStyleSheet.replaceSync() methods are newer additions to the specification, enabling Constructable Stylesheets.

Constructor

CSSStyleSheet(): Creates a new CSSStyleSheet object.

Instance properties

Inherits properties from its parent, StyleSheet.

CSSStyleSheet.cssRules Read only: Returns a live CSSRuleList which maintains an up-to-date list of the CSSRule objects that comprise the stylesheet.

Note: In some browsers, if a stylesheet is loaded from a different domain, accessing cssRules results in a SecurityError.
CSSStyleSheet.ownerRule Read only: If this stylesheet is imported into the document using an @import rule, the ownerRule property returns the corresponding CSSImportRule; otherwise, this property's value is null.

Instance methods

Inherits methods from its parent, StyleSheet.

CSSStyleSheet.deleteRule(): Deletes the rule at the specified index into the stylesheet's rule list.
CSSStyleSheet.insertRule(): Inserts a new rule at the specified position in the stylesheet, given the textual representation of the rule.
CSSStyleSheet.replace(): Asynchronously replaces the content of the stylesheet and returns a Promise that resolves with the updated CSSStyleSheet.
CSSStyleSheet.replaceSync(): Synchronously replaces the content of the stylesheet.

Legacy properties

These properties are legacy properties as introduced by Microsoft; these are maintained for compatibility with existing sites.

rules Read only Deprecated: The rules property is functionally identical to the standard cssRules property; it returns a live CSSRuleList which maintains an up-to-date list of all of the rules in the style sheet.

Legacy methods

These methods are legacy methods as introduced by Microsoft; these are maintained for compatibility with existing sites.

addRule() Deprecated

Adds a new rule to the stylesheet given the selector to which the style applies and the style block to apply to the matching elements.

This differs from insertRule(), which takes the textual representation of the entire rule as a single string.

removeRule() Deprecated

Functionally identical to deleteRule(); removes the rule at the specified index from the stylesheet's rule list.

Obtaining a StyleSheet

A stylesheet is associated with at most one Document, which it applies to (unless disabled). A list of CSSStyleSheet objects for a given document can be obtained using the Document.styleSheets property. A specific style sheet can also be accessed from its owner object (Node or CSSImportRule), if any.

A CSSStyleSheet object is created and inserted into the document's Document.styleSheets list automatically by the browser, when a stylesheet is loaded for a document.

A (possibly incomplete) list of ways a stylesheet can be associated with a document follows:

Reason for the style sheet to be associated with the document	Appears in `document. styleSheets` list	Getting the owner element/rule given the style sheet object	The interface for the owner object	Getting the CSSStyleSheet object from the owner
`<style>` and `<link>` elements in the document	Yes	`.ownerNode`	`HTMLLinkElement`, `HTMLStyleElement`, or `SVGStyleElement`	`HTMLLinkElement.sheet`, `HTMLStyleElement.sheet`, or `SVGStyleElement.sheet`
CSS `@import` rule in other style sheets applied to the document	Yes	`.ownerRule`	`CSSImportRule`	`.styleSheet`
`<?xml-stylesheet ?>` processing instruction in the (non-HTML) document	Yes	`.ownerNode`	`ProcessingInstruction`	`.sheet`
JavaScript `import ... with { type: "css" }`	No	N/A	N/A	N/A
HTTP Link Header	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A
User agent (default) style sheets	No	N/A	N/A	N/A

Specifications

Specification
CSS Object Model (CSSOM) # the-cssstylesheet-interface

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser