Sass Extending Compound Selectors

Posted in Sass Tutorial

Updated on Aug 29, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 8 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

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Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

In Sass, extending allows you to share styles between selectors to avoid redundancy and maintain a clean stylesheet. When dealing with compound selectors—selectors that combine multiple classes or elements—the @extend feature can be particularly useful.

This guide explores how to effectively extend compound selectors, providing examples and best practices.

💡 Syntax

The syntax for extending selectors in Sass is simple:

Syntax

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.selector-to-extend {
  // Styles to be shared
}

.other-selector {
  @extend .selector-to-extend;
}

.selector-to-extend: The selector whose styles you want to share.
.other-selector: The selector that will inherit the styles.

🔢 Understanding Compound Selectors

A compound selector is a selector that combines multiple simple selectors. For example, .class1.class2 is a compound selector that targets elements with both class1 and class2.

🌱 Extending Compound Selectors

When you extend a compound selector, you are essentially applying its styles to other selectors that match the same compound criteria. This can help reduce duplication and simplify complex stylesheets.

📝 Example Usage

Let's explore some practical examples to see how the Extending Compound Selectors can be used in Sass.

📜 Example 1: Basic Compound Selector Extension

example.scss

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.button-primary {
  background-color: blue;
  color: white;
  padding: 10px 20px;
}

.button-secondary {
  @extend .button-primary;
  background-color: gray;
}

In this example, the .button-secondary selector inherits the styles from .button-primary, but overrides the background-color.

📜 Example 2: Extending Multiple Compound Selectors

example.scss

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.card-title {
  font-size: 1.5em;
  font-weight: bold;
}

.card-content {
  @extend .card-title;
  font-size: 1em;
}

.card-footer {
  @extend .card-title;
  font-size: 0.875em;
}

Here, both .card-content and .card-footer extend .card-title, but each has its own specific font size.

📜 Example 3: Extending with Multiple Classes

example.scss

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.alert {
  padding: 15px;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

.alert-success {
  @extend .alert;
  background-color: lightgreen;
}

.alert-error {
  @extend .alert;
  background-color: lightcoral;
}

In this case, .alert-success and .alert-error both extend the .alert class, adding specific background colors for success and error messages.

🏆 Best Practices

Avoid Overusing @extend: While @extend is powerful, overusing it can lead to complex CSS output and specificity issues. Use it judiciously to keep your stylesheets maintainable.
Keep Extensions Simple: Try to extend selectors that have similar styles to prevent unexpected results. Extending selectors with very different styles can lead to cluttered and confusing CSS.
Understand Selector Specificity: Be mindful of how @extend affects the specificity of your selectors. Extending multiple selectors can sometimes result in unexpected specificity conflicts.
Document Your Styles: Clearly comment on the purpose of extended selectors to make it easier for others (or yourself) to understand the relationships between styles.

🎉 Conclusion

Extending compound selectors in Sass is a powerful technique for managing and reusing styles across your stylesheet. By understanding how to effectively use @extend, you can create cleaner, more maintainable code and reduce redundancy. Remember to use @extend thoughtfully and be aware of its impact on CSS output and specificity.

By leveraging the power of Sass extending, you can streamline your styles and ensure a more efficient workflow in your web design projects.