React Styled Components in 2023

Adam Khodier
6 min readMar 28, 2023

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React Styled Components is a popular library for styling React components. It allows developers to write CSS in JavaScript, making it easy to create and manage reusable styles for their components.

At its core, Styled Components uses a combination of JavaScript and CSS to define styles for components. The library provides a way to define styled components using a combination of tagged template literals and JavaScript functions.

Here’s an example of how to define a styled component using Styled Components:

import styled from 'styled-components';

const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;
`;

In this example, we’ve defined a Button component that has a green background, white text, and a border. We can use this component just like any other React component:

<Button>Click me!</Button>

React Styled Components is a popular library for styling React components. It allows developers to write CSS in JavaScript, making it easy to create and manage reusable styles for their components.

At its core, Styled Components uses a combination of JavaScript and CSS to define styles for components. The library provides a way to define styled components using a combination of tagged template literals and JavaScript functions.

Here’s an example of how to define a styled component using Styled Components:

jsxCopy code
import styled from 'styled-components';
const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;
`;

In this example, we’ve defined a Button component that has a green background, white text, and a border. We can use this component just like any other React component:

jsxCopy code
<Button>Click me!</Button>

One of the key benefits of Styled Components is that it allows developers to create highly reusable styles. Rather than defining styles for individual elements or components, styles can be defined for a specific type of component, and then reused throughout the application.

Styled Components also makes it easy to create dynamic styles based on props or other variables. For example, we could define a button component that changes color based on a disabled prop:

import styled, { css } from 'styled-components';

const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;

${props =>
props.disabled &&
css`
background-color: gray;
border-color: gray;
cursor: not-allowed;
`}
`;

React Styled Components is a popular library for styling React components. It allows developers to write CSS in JavaScript, making it easy to create and manage reusable styles for their components.

At its core, Styled Components uses a combination of JavaScript and CSS to define styles for components. The library provides a way to define styled components using a combination of tagged template literals and JavaScript functions.

Here’s an example of how to define a styled component using Styled Components:

jsxCopy code
import styled from 'styled-components';
const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;
`;

In this example, we’ve defined a Button component that has a green background, white text, and a border. We can use this component just like any other React component:

jsxCopy code
<Button>Click me!</Button>

One of the key benefits of Styled Components is that it allows developers to create highly reusable styles. Rather than defining styles for individual elements or components, styles can be defined for a specific type of component, and then reused throughout the application.

Styled Components also makes it easy to create dynamic styles based on props or other variables. For example, we could define a button component that changes color based on a disabled prop:

jsxCopy code
import styled, { css } from 'styled-components';
const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;
${props =>
props.disabled &&
css`
background-color: gray;
border-color: gray;
cursor: not-allowed;
`}
`;

In this example, we’re using the css helper function to define a dynamic style based on the disabled prop. If the prop is true, the button will have a gray background and border, and the cursor will be set to not-allowed.

Styled Components also makes it easy to create complex, nested styles using the & operator. For example, we could define a component that has different styles when it's in a certain state:

import styled from 'styled-components';

const Form = styled.form`
input {
padding: 0.5em;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
border-radius: 3px;
}

button {
margin-top: 1em;
padding: 0.5em 1em;
border-radius: 3px;

&.primary {
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
border-color: #4CAF50;
}

&.secondary {
background-color: #ccc;
color: #333;
border-color: #ccc;
}
}
`;

React Styled Components is a popular library for styling React components. It allows developers to write CSS in JavaScript, making it easy to create and manage reusable styles for their components.

At its core, Styled Components uses a combination of JavaScript and CSS to define styles for components. The library provides a way to define styled components using a combination of tagged template literals and JavaScript functions.

Here’s an example of how to define a styled component using Styled Components:

jsxCopy code
import styled from 'styled-components';
const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;
`;

In this example, we’ve defined a Button component that has a green background, white text, and a border. We can use this component just like any other React component:

jsxCopy code
<Button>Click me!</Button>

One of the key benefits of Styled Components is that it allows developers to create highly reusable styles. Rather than defining styles for individual elements or components, styles can be defined for a specific type of component, and then reused throughout the application.

Styled Components also makes it easy to create dynamic styles based on props or other variables. For example, we could define a button component that changes color based on a disabled prop:

jsxCopy code
import styled, { css } from 'styled-components';
const Button = styled.button`
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 1em;
padding: 0.25em 1em;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
border-radius: 3px;
${props =>
props.disabled &&
css`
background-color: gray;
border-color: gray;
cursor: not-allowed;
`}
`;

In this example, we’re using the css helper function to define a dynamic style based on the disabled prop. If the prop is true, the button will have a gray background and border, and the cursor will be set to not-allowed.

Styled Components also makes it easy to create complex, nested styles using the & operator. For example, we could define a component that has different styles when it's in a certain state:

import styled from 'styled-components';

const Form = styled.form`
input {
padding: 0.5em;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
border-radius: 3px;
}

button {
margin-top: 1em;
padding: 0.5em 1em;
border-radius: 3px;

&.primary {
background-color: #4CAF50;
color: white;
border-color: #4CAF50;
}

&.secondary {
background-color: #ccc;
color: #333;
border-color: #ccc;
}
}
`;

In this example, we’re defining a Form component that has styles for input and button elements. We're using the & operator to define different styles for the button when it has a primary or secondary class.

Overall, Styled Components is a powerful and flexible way to style React components. It offers a wide range of features for defining and managing styles, making it easy to create highly reusable and dynamic styles for your components. If you’re looking for a way to make your React components more stylish and flexible, Styled Components is definitely worth checking out.

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Adam Khodier
0 Followers

Political Science Major turned Full Stack Software Engineer. |JavaScript| |React.JS| |Next.JS| |Ruby on Rails| |HTML/CSS| |Tailwind| |SQL| |PostgreSQL|