Sass unit() Function

Posted in Sass Tutorial

Updated on Sep 30, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 53 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

💬 1 Comment

Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

The unit() function in Sass is a useful tool for managing and extracting the unit of a value. It allows you to retrieve the unit from a value, such as px, %, em, or any other CSS unit, which can be particularly helpful in dynamic calculations and unit-based operations.

Understanding and utilizing the unit() function can enhance your ability to create flexible and responsive designs in Sass.

💡 Syntax

The syntax of the unit() function is simple and consists of a single argument:

Syntax

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unit(value)

🔢 Parameters

value: The input value from which you want to extract the unit (e.g., 10px, 50%, 2em).

↩️ Return Value

The function returns the unit of the given value as a string. If the value does not have a unit, the function returns null.

📝 Example Usage

Let's explore some examples to understand how the unit() function works in various scenarios.

📜 Example 1: Extracting the Unit from a Value

example.scss

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$padding: 15px;
$padding-unit: unit($padding);

body {
  padding: $padding;
  // This will output: padding: 15px;
  // The unit is extracted as 'px'
}

In this example, the unit() function extracts px from the 15px value.

📜 Example 2: Using unit() in Calculations

example.scss

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$base-width: 100%; 
$margin: 20px;

$margin-unit: unit($margin);

.container {
  width: $base-width;
  margin-left: $margin;
  // Here, $margin-unit will be 'px', which can be useful if you need to apply margin with the same unit elsewhere.
}

Here, unit() helps in identifying the unit of 20px, which can be useful if you need to perform further calculations or adjustments.

📜 Example 3: Handling Values Without Units

example.scss

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$border-radius: 10; // No unit

$border-radius-unit: unit($border-radius);

.box {
  border-radius: $border-radius;
  // The unit is null, indicating that $border-radius does not have a unit
}

In this case, since 10 has no unit, unit() returns null.

🎉 Conclusion

The unit() function in Sass is a valuable tool for extracting and working with units in your stylesheets. It helps you manage unit-based values more effectively, ensuring consistency and flexibility in your designs. Whether you are performing calculations or need to adapt values dynamically, unit() provides the functionality to handle units with ease.

By leveraging the unit() function, you can create more adaptable and responsive styles, improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your CSS code. Experiment with unit() to better understand how it can fit into your Sass workflow and enhance your design process.