Tutorial: Using Built-in Functions for Advanced Styling with SASS/SCSS

1. Introduction

Goal of the Tutorial

In this tutorial, we aim to help you understand the power of using SASS/SCSS's advanced built-in functions for enhancing the styling of your web pages. These functions can help you manage and manipulate your styles more effectively.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to:

• Understand and use various built-in functions in SASS/SCSS
• Apply these functions to enhance your styles effectively
• Write more maintainable and scalable SCSS code

Prerequisites

A basic understanding of CSS and familiarity with SASS/SCSS is recommended.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Concepts

SASS/SCSS provides various built-in functions that can be used for color manipulation, string manipulation, list manipulation, etc. These functions can be very useful for adding dynamicity to your styles.

Examples

Here are some examples of commonly used functions:

• darken($color, $amount): This function takes a color and a percentage, and returns a color that is a darker version.
• lighten($color, $amount): Similar to darken, but returns a lighter version of the color.
• mix($color1, $color2, [$weight]): This function takes two colors and an optional weight, and returns a color that is a mix of the two input colors.

Best Practices and Tips

• Always comment your code to explain what each function is doing.
• Try to use functions instead of hardcoding values wherever possible.

3. Code Examples

Example 1: Using darken and lighten

$primary-color: #3498db;

.button {
  background-color: $primary-color;

  &:hover {
    // Darken the button color on hover
    background-color: darken($primary-color, 10%);
  }

  &:active {
    // Lighten the button color on active
    background-color: lighten($primary-color, 10%);
  }
}

In the above example, we're using the darken and lighten functions to change the background color of a button on hover and active states.

Example 2: Using mix

$color1: #3498db;
$color2: #2ecc71;

.button {
  // Create a new color by mixing two colors
  background-color: mix($color1, $color2);
}

In this example, we're using the mix function to create a new color for the button background by combining two colors.

4. Summary

We have covered:
- The importance of SASS/SCSS's built-in functions and their usage.
- How to use darken, lighten, and mix functions.
- Best practices when using these functions.

Next Steps

Now, you can try using other functions provided by SASS/SCSS like contrast, adjust-hue, etc.

Additional Resources

SASS Functions Documentation

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1:

Create a SASS/SCSS code snippet that uses the adjust-hue function to change the hue of a color.

Exercise 2:

Create a SASS/SCSS code snippet that uses the contrast function to set the color of text based on the background color.

Solutions and Explanations

// Solution 1
$color: #3498db;

.button {
  // Change the hue of a color
  background-color: adjust-hue($color, 60deg);
}

In this solution, we're using the adjust-hue function to change the hue of the $color by 60 degrees.

// Solution 2
$bg-color: #3498db;

.text {
  // Set the color of the text based on the background color
  color: contrast($bg-color, #000, #fff);
}

In this solution, we're using the contrast function to set the color of the text based on the background color. If the background color is light, the text color will be black (#000). If it's dark, the text color will be white (#fff).