Conditional Styling in React JS

Styling in React applications is a crucial aspect of creating visually appealing and dynamic user interfaces. There are scenarios where you might need to conditionally change styles or apply different CSS classes based on certain conditions. In this blog post, we’ll explore various techniques for achieving this in a React app, supported by a real-world example.

Scenario: Dynamic Styling Based on User Interaction
Let’s consider a common scenario where you want to change the background color of a button when it is clicked. We’ll explore how to achieve this using React and JSX.

Step 1: Set Up Your React App
Assuming you have a React app created (you can use create-react-app), navigate to the project directory and open your preferred code editor.

Step 2: Create a Button Component
Create a new file named Button.js for our button component:

// src/components/Button.js
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import './Button.css';

const Button = () => {
  const [isClicked, setIsClicked] = useState(false);

  const handleClick = () => {
    setIsClicked(!isClicked);
  };

  return (
    <button
      className={isClicked ? 'clicked' : ''}
      onClick={handleClick}
    >
      Click me!
    </button>
  );
};

export default Button;

Step 3: Create the Stylesheet
Create a CSS file named Button.css to define the styles:

/* src/components/Button.css */
button {
  padding: 10px 20px;
  font-size: 16px;
  cursor: pointer;
}

.clicked {
  background-color: #4caf50; /* Green background color */
  color: white; 
}

Step 4: Integrate the Button Component
Now, integrate the Button component into your main app file (App.js):

// src/App.js
import React from 'react';
import Button from './components/Button';

function App() {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>Conditional Styling in React</h1>
      <Button />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Step 5: Run Your App

Start your React app to see the changes:

npm start

Visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser and interact with the button. You’ll notice that the background color changes when the button is clicked.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we explored how to conditionally change styles in a React app using a real-world example of a button component. This technique, using state and conditional rendering, allows you to dynamically update styles based on user interactions. You can apply similar concepts to more complex scenarios, such as toggling styles based on API responses or user authentication status.

Remember that styling is a powerful tool to enhance user experience, and React provides a flexible and intuitive way to handle dynamic styling in your applications. Feel free to experiment with different styles and conditions to achieve the desired visual effects in your React projects