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Boost Your Web Development Efficiency: 5 Advantages of SCSS over Plain CSS

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Rahul B
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Boost Your Web Development Efficiency: 5 Advantages of SCSS over Plain CSS

Table of contents

What is Scss?

Scss stands for sassy CSS. It is a superset of CSS same as Typescript, a superset of javascript. More formally it is a CSS preprocessor.

Now what is this Preprocessor?

A CSS preprocessor is a language or tool that enhances the functionality of standard CSS by adding new features like variables, nesting, mixins, functions, and more. It makes CSS code writing more effective, modular, and manageable for developers. One of the well-known CSS preprocessors is, SCSS (Sassy CSS).

5 Main Reasons to Use Scss over CSS?

  1. Improved Developer Experience: Compared to Plain CSS, SCSS offers a more effective development experience. Variables, nesting, mixins, and function features all serve to cut down on duplication, encourage code reuse, and improve readability. For larger and more complicated projects in particular, this leads to quicker and easier to-maintain stylesheets.

  2. Code Reusability: DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself ) principle is fundamental to programming and CSS lacks it somewhere. Here is the example

Plain CSS code:-

/* Common styles for elements */
.element1 {
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  padding: 10px;
  color: #333;
}
.element2 {
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  padding: 10px;
  color: #333;
}
.element3 {
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  padding: 10px;
  color: #333;
}

Scss Code:-

/* Variables */
$common-background-color: #f1f1f1;
$common-padding: 10px;
$common-color: #333;
/* Mixin for common styles */
@mixin common-styles {
  background-color: $common-background-color;
  padding: $common-padding;
  color: $common-color;
}

/* Apply common styles using the mixin */
.element1,
.element2,
.element3 {
  @include common-styles;
}

3. Compatibility with CSS:- Learning Scss is not hard because, after all, it is a superset of CSS which means all the concepts that we apply in plain CSS that are valid here, just the way we write them has changed. This allows developers to gradually transition from CSS to SCSS by simply renaming their files with a .scss extension and incrementally adopting SCSS features.

4. Modularity and Flexibility:- SCSS enables developers to divide their stylesheets into partials, which are reusable and modular components. Stylesheets are organized using a modular method, which makes them easier to manage and maintain. Developers may use SCSS to import partials as needed, cutting down on repetition and enhancing code organization. Compared to standard CSS, SCSS offers more flexibility and capability. To build more dynamic and adaptable styles, developers may use the power of programming principles like variables, loops, conditionals, and mathematical operations. This facilitates the adaptation of styles to suit various circumstances, screen sizes, or user activities.

This is how simply you can make you code more modular.

@import "buttons";
@import "forms";

To get started with Scss you can check out this repo: github.com/RahulBisht001/Scss-Tutorial

5. Community and Adaptation:- A sizable and vibrant development community has embraced SCSS and it is widely used in the industry for obvious reasons. This indicates that there are many tools, guides, and community resources accessible, making it simpler to understand and solve SCSS-related problems.

CSSSassdevelopmentGitHub