7 Tips on How to Write Clean and Maintainable CSS Code
Article written for personal purpose.
Whether you are a beginner or have already developed several websites: by now, you’re probably tired of knowing that external style sheets (CSS — Cascading Style Sheets) are mandatory in any project.
However, CSS can quickly become difficult to maintain and manage if not written in a clean and organized manner. This is especially a challenge for developers as most of them receive projects that had already been written.
To work efficiently on such a project, it is crucial to understand the source code. This is when the importance of clean code becomes evident.
In this article, we will discuss five tips for writing clean and maintainable CSS code.
1. Use a CSS preprocessor
A CSS preprocessor like Sass, Less, or Stylus can make your code much cleaner and easier to maintain. These preprocessors offer features like variables, mixins, and functions that allow you to write more reusable and modular code.
For example, you can create a color variable and use it throughout your CSS code, making it easy to update the color scheme of your website with a single change. Preprocessors also offer more advanced features like nesting, which can help to improve the readability of your code.
2. Keep your code modular
Breaking your CSS code into smaller, more modular parts can make it much easier to manage and maintain.
Use a consistent naming convention for your classes and IDs, and group them logically based on the content or functionality they relate to. By doing this, you can more easily find and update specific sections of your code and avoid conflicts with other styles on your website.
3. Use comments to explain your code
Using comments is an important aspect of writing clean and maintainable CSS code. Comments can help you and other developers understand why certain styles are used or what a particular section of code does.
Use comments to explain the purpose of your code, why you chose a specific approach, or to give context to other developers who may need to work on your code in the future. Good comments can help to make your code more maintainable over time.
4. Simplify your selectors
CSS selectors are used to target specific HTML elements and apply styles to them. However, complex selectors can make your code difficult to maintain and update. Instead, use simple, clear selectors that target specific elements based on their attributes, class names, or IDs.
Avoid using descendant selectors or overly complex combinators unless absolutely necessary. Simplifying your selectors can help you to more easily target specific elements, avoid selector collisions, and make your code more efficient.
5. Keep your CSS code DRY
DRY stands for “Don’t Repeat Yourself.” In CSS, this means avoiding repetition of styles by using inheritance, variables, and mixins.
Repetition can make your code bloated, difficult to maintain, and increase the chance of errors. Use inheritance to apply styles to multiple elements that share common attributes. Use variables to define commonly used values like colors, font sizes, or padding.
Use mixins to group commonly used styles together and apply them to multiple elements. By keeping your code DRY, you can make it more efficient and easier to maintain.
5. Follow a consistent naming convention
Using a consistent naming convention for your classes and IDs can make it much easier to manage and maintain your CSS code. Consider using a naming convention like BEM (Block Element Modifier) or SMACSS (Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS) to help organize your code.
6. Use a CSS reset or normalize
Different browsers may have different default styles for HTML elements, which can make it difficult to create consistent styles across all devices and platforms.
A CSS reset or normalize can help to standardize the default styles of HTML elements, making it easier to apply your own styles consistently.
7. Add a linter tool
A linter is a tool that analyzes your code for errors, warnings, and best practices. Using a CSS linter like Stylelint or CSSLint can help you to catch errors and improve the overall quality of your code.
Linters can also enforce coding standards, which can help you to maintain a consistent code style across your project.
These are simple ways to improve your CSS skills so that you can write cleaner and better CSS code. By following these tips, you can make a big impact on your CSS code file and avoid issues with code quality and performance.
