David Asaolu

Posted on Oct 9, 2021

Introduction to styled-components

#react #javascript #css #webdev

Yes, I have always been like you, I've been styling my html elements in my React apps using classNames, because, that was the only available way in React.😒

After completing a project, going back to maintain or edit the recently completed project is always stressful☹️.

I was also introduced to BEM syntax. BEM was quite helpful, but it wasn't still the best for me with React. Problem Unsolved! 😓

Write Structured CSS using BEM syntax

David Asaolu ・ Jul 24 '21

#webdev #tutorial #javascript #beginners

Not until few weeks ago, I was watching a tutorial video and I came across styled components. Sounds cool, but what is it all about?
Is it going to solve my problem? Is it less stressful?
Let's find out! 😊

So what exactly is styled-components?

According to the official website, styled components is the result of wondering how we could enhance CSS for styling React component systems. It uses the best bits of ES6 and CSS to style your apps without STRESS.🎉

So how can you use styled-components in your React apps.

Install it via NPM

npm install --save styled-components

Once, it is installed that's all.🎉

Let's build this simple design using styled-components

In order to use styled-components in your react app, you will have to import styled-components, like this

import styled from "styled-components"

Now, for the example above here is how the component looks like

import React from "react"
import styled from "styled-components" //The styled import


//In styled-components, every element is declared as a variable 

//and you are free to use any variable name you like.

//styled.main: main represents the html tag <main></main> that's 

//what Container is representing

const Container = styled.main` 
  width: 90%;
  background-color: #fff;
  padding: 30px;
  border-radius: 15px
`

//Header represents the h2 tag
const Header = styled.h2`
color: #192041;
font-weight: 700;
margin-bottom: 15px;
font-family: "Merriweather", serif;
`

//Form represents the form tag
const Form = styled.form`
width: 100%;
margin: 15px 0px;
display: flex;
align-items: center
` 

//InputContainer represents the input tag
const InputContainer = styled.input`
flex: 0.8;
margin-right: 10px;
height: 35px;
background-color: #e6e9fb;
border: 1px solid #ddd;
outline: none;
padding: 15px
`
//SubHeader represents the p-tag 
const SubHeader = styled.p`
  color: #000;
  font-weight: 500;
  font-size: 14px
`
//What happened here is that ParagraphCommon inherits the style of

//SubHeader, just like giving them the same styles. You can also 

//add specific styles within the quotes

const ParagraphCommon = styled(SubHeader)``

const SearchButton = styled.button`
height: 35px;
background-color: #192041;
flex: 0.2;
border: none;
color: #fff`

const ButtonGroup = styled.div`
width: 100%;
margin: 15px 0px;
display: flex;
align-items: center
`
const Button = styled.button`
  margin-right: 15px;
  width: 100px;
  padding: 7px;
  border: none;
  cursor: pointer;
  border-radius: 5px;
  color: ${props => props.textColor};
  background-color: ${props => props.bgColor}

//Here, styled-components receive props from the elements in the

//components, which are then accessed using this syntax, which 

//gives you the opportunity to do conditional styling.
`

//The React component
function App() {
  return (
    <Container>
        <Header>
          Free and Pro website templates for your business
        </Header>
        <SubHeader>
          Choose from over 300 fully responsive portfolio, blog and ecommerce templates
        </SubHeader>
        <Form>
          <InputContainer placeholder="Search all templates"/>
          <SearchButton>Search</SearchButton>
        </Form>

        <ParagraphCommon>
            Common searches
        </ParagraphCommon>

        <ButtonGroup>
            <Button bgColor="#f1c0de" textColor="#F037A5">Blog</Button>
            <Button bgColor="#e0c3fa" textColor="#8C5EB8">Business</Button>
            <Button bgColor="#d0fccd" textColor="#77D970">Portfolio</Button>
            <Button bgColor="#F9E4C8" textColor="#F78812">Ecommerce</Button>
        </ButtonGroup>
    </Container>
  );
}

export default App;

More interesting view:

There are still a lot about styled-components, which you will love to check out. Click here for more

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Thank you for reading!🎉

Top comments (37)

joshkarges • Oct 9 '21

After using styled-components for a while, you'll be begging to use classNames again. Here's just a few limitations:

styled class names are random stings that you have no control over, so looking at the DOM tree to debug something is a nightmare.
Styled is really only good for styling a simple html tag. The moment you try to style any other component you'll realize things like the props to style are different from the props to render, and generic parameters don't transfer from a styled component. So say goodbye to ever using Typescript.
The styled css props overwrite anything else giving through normal means like global css, or className, so your component becomes useless for sharing with others.

That's just a few. Sending in a simple string to the className is so much simpler and so much more powerful.

David Asaolu • Oct 9 '21

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Joshkarges

damilola jerugba • Oct 9 '21 • Edited

I think you all should reduce the toxicity in this comment section, he is a fan of styled components and he prefers it to BEM, he made his suggestion not a statement, I personally out grew styled components but that doesn't mean someone shouldn't write about how they feel about it positively

Andres Ausecha Mosquera • Oct 19 '21 • Edited

Toxicity does not exist, we only give our opinions, the problem is to have the maturity to evaluate them and take a decision, if you do not have it I guess you career as developer won't be long

Ansile • Oct 10 '21 • Edited

I must say, styled components are kind of a newbie trap.

They sound cool, they look cool when you are writing your first code with them, so, you think, why not use them?

In these moments you don't think (unless you already have experience) about whether they are performant, easily maintainable or any of that other boring stuff.

And, by my experience, they aren't any of those:

they introduce an performance tax, and if your project ever grows to a point where performance starts to matter, there's not much to be done about it.
they are not compatible with Typescript, which is a huge deal breaker IMO
they are not lintable and not really checkable at compile-time at all. So support checking, autoprefixing and all other postcss features are automatically out of question

And frankly, the library (and the concept itself) are kinda old, so there were additions to css that do same kinds of things easier.

If you just need to represent component states - write a few classes. BEM or css-modules - frankly, does not really matter.
It's more clean - you separate different states into different classes, instead of opting for what is basically if expressions in one huge amorphous style.

If you really need to style something according to props, and there are more than, say, 3 states - use CSS-variables (if your supported browsers allow you to). It's simple, native and performant.

Anthony Oyathelemhi • Oct 12 '21

I must say, styled components are kind of a newbie trap.

Very correct! Not long ago, I would install it when creating a new React project. Over time, I depended on it less and less, till the point where I no longer used it for anything. I think this coincided with when I started using Typescript/Tailwind

David Asaolu • Oct 10 '21

Thank you for the insights 🙌

Justyn Clark • Oct 9 '21

SC is old now people. It's just CSS-in-JS.
cssinjs.org

It's cool, I love it in some projects but can cause problems in others with homebrew static publishing solutions that give FOUC using it.

Also homeboy and others, please stop using "Stop using/doing" in these post titles. It's annoying!!!

Some would argue class names is back in a major way with Tailwind.

David Asaolu • Oct 9 '21

Alright noted. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

Cody Swartz • Oct 9 '21 • Edited

If you're using something that supports CSS modules like Next JS I recommend trying out SCSS modules.

I am not exactly sure what you mean when you say you've been styling using classNames. Have you just been providing a raw object to classNames or have you tried CSS modules?

Hugo Martinez • Oct 9 '21 • Edited

SC is awesome to me... normally so that my component doesn't get mixed up with big SC code I just put the style components in a separate file and then import them, it really makes it easier for me to use SC than other ways of doing the same. And a plus is that there are several ways to have a good performance (without sacrificing much functionality) for more complex scenarios.

Of course, if you are only going to style a very small and static app, pure css I think is the best

Michael Currin • Oct 10 '21

I recommend adding syntax highlighting to your long code block.

Also I recommend being consistent with indenting the CSS styles and adding spaces at the start of your comments.

```jsx
// Header represents the h2 tag
const Header = styled.h2`
  color: #192041;
  font-weight: 700;
  margin-bottom: 15px;
  font-family: "Merriweather", serif;
`
```

// Header represents the h2 tag
const Header = styled.h2`
  color: #192041;
  font-weight: 700;
  margin-bottom: 15px;
  font-family: "Merriweather", serif;
`

jurip89 • Oct 9 '21

There's also:
Imprt {css} from 'styled-component'
Where you can assign to a variable a definite style.
If you style the same component in different ways you can do:
const example = styled(CustomButton) background-color:blue;

David Asaolu • Oct 9 '21

Wow, thanks for sharing.
I will check that out also.

Luiz Henrique Souza • Oct 9 '21

I think it's good to know the available styling options, I've used pure css, sass, styled-components and now I've decided to use css modules with sass and the classnames lib to facilitate conditional styles, and I'm really enjoying it, I believe there is no silver bullet, yes, there are tools that make the development much easier, finally, using one or the other depends a lot on the project and the dev's decision-making power.