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You can find the full code for this tutorial at https://codesandbox.io/s/styling-in-react-8nu2b.

Create your Component

Firstly, you'll need to create your React component. I'll create a simple button, like so:

import React from "react"

const MyButton = () => {
		return <button>Sign in</button>
}

export default MyButton

Without any styling, the button will look like the image on the left by default. We want to style it to get the button on the right. Let's explore three different ways to style this button!

Screen Shot 2021-02-23 at 10.04.34 AM

Inline styling

Inline styling is adding styling to a single component using the HTML style attribute inside the HTML tag. To add styling to our button using inline styling, we'll do it like so:

const MyButton = () => {
		return <button 
		style={{
		    background: "linear-gradient(91.4deg, #2fb8ff 0%, #9eecd9 100%)", 
		    padding: "12px 0", 
		    width: "300px", 
		    border: "none",
		    borderRadius: "30px",
		    color: "white",
		    fontWeight: "bold",
		    fontFamily: "Segoe UI, sans-serif"
		}}>
				Sign in
		</button>
}

export default MyButton

Note: I do not recommend using inline styles unless it's absolutely necessary as it makes your file look more cluttered and unorganized, and has a toll on your website's performance.

CSS Stylesheets

This is one of the most common ways to add styling to your React application. You create a separate stylesheet and then import said stylesheet to your component. This is similar to how you'd go about adding styles in HTML.

To apply styles to our button, we'll need to add a class name to it. This can be done by using the className attribute.

const MyButton = () => {
		return <button className="myButton">Sign in</button>
}

export default MyButton

Let's create a new file named styles.css and add the following styling to it:

.myButton {
  background: linear-gradient(91.4deg, #2fb8ff 0%, #9eecd9 100%); 
  padding: 12px 0; 
  width: 200px; 
  border: none;
  border-radius: 30px;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;
}

Now, let's head over to the component and import the stylesheet at the top of the file.

import "./styles.css";

And the styling will be applied to our button!

Styled Components

styled-components is a library for React that allows you to add styles to your components using a combination of both CSS and JavaScript. The first thing we need to do to use styled-components is to install the library. To do so, in the terminal, type in:

npm install styled-components

Once installed, let's import it to our file.

import styled from "styled-components";

Then, we'll need to modify the button a bit by creating a styled.button and defining our newly created component at the bottom of our file:

const MyButton = () => {
		return <Button>Sign in</Button>
}

export default MyButton

const Button = styled.button``

Inside the backticks, right after styled.button, we'll add our CSS:

const Button = styled.button`
    background: linear-gradient(91.4deg, #2fb8ff 0%, #9eecd9 100%); 
    padding: 12px 0; 
    width: 200px; 
    border: none;
    border-radius: 30px;
    color: white;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;
`

Using styled-components is really useful when you need to create reusable components. You can even pass in props and render different stylings depending on the prop. Read more about conditional style rendering in the Styles and Props section of this handbook.

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Videos

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1

Intro to React Hooks

An overview of React Hooks and the frameworks you can use to build your React application blazingly fast

3:39

2

Create your first React app

Create your first React project from the Terminal and save it on your local computer

4:23

3

React Component

Create your first JSX component using React

2:54

4

Styling in React

How to style your React components using inline styling, separate stylesheets or styled-components

5:06

5

Styles and Props

Render different styles depending on different properties passed to your component

2:22

6

Understanding Hooks

Learn about the basics of React Hooks, which introduced at React Conf 2018

3:21

7

useState Hook

Use the useState hook to manage local state in your React component

2:54

8

useEffect Hook

Manage with your component's lifecycle with the useEffect hook

3:41

9

useRef Hook

Learn about the useRef hook, which replaces the JavaScript getElementById way

3:00

10

Props

Learn about props in React to pass data from parent to child components

3:11

11

Conditional Rendering

Render different UIs depending on different conditions and states

4:21

12

Load Local Data

Load local JSON data into your React application

4:04

13

Fetch Data from an API

Learn the basics of asynchronous functions and promises by fetching data from an API using fetch, useEffect and useState

5:40

14

Toggle a state

Learn how to toggle a state from true to false and back again

4:05

15

useInput Hook

Create a hook to get the value and the onChange event of input fields

6:04

16

Gatsby and React

Create a static content-oriented website using React on Gatsby

6:44

17

NextJS and React

Create your first NextJS React application

5:24

18

React TypeScript Part 1

Learn how to create a React TypeScript application using the Create React App, Gatsby and NextJS methods

8:19

19

React TypeScript Part 2

Learn the basics of TypeScript and how to use TypeScript in a React component

7:35

20

useScrollPosition Hook

Create a custom hook to listen to the current window position of the user

4:26

21

useOnScreen hook

Create a custom hook to listen to when an element is visible on screen

8:08

22

useContext Hook

Manage global states throughout the entire application

8:32

23

Fragments

Group multiple children together with React Fragments

2:43

24

Lazy Loading

Lazy Load heavy components to improve performance

4:05

25

React Suspense

Wait for data with React Suspense and React.lazy

3:13

26

Environment Variables

Make environment variables secret with a .env file

4:43

27

Reach Router

Create a multiple-pages React application with Reach Router

5:31

28

URL Params

Create unique URL with URL Params

4:04

29

SEO and Metadata

Optimize a React application for search engines with React Helmet

6:47

30

Favicon

Add an icon to a React website

3:03

31

Dynamic Favicon

Change the favicon's fill color depending on the user's system appearance

2:14

32

PropTypes

Implement props type-checking with PropTypes

3:54

33

Custom PropTypes

Create a custom PropType using a validator function

3:58

34

useMemo Hook

Prevent unnecessary re-renders when the component stays the same

4:05

35

forwardRef Hook

Forward a ref to a child component

3:28

36

Handling Events

How to handle events in React

5:44

37

Spread attributes

Learn how to make use of the spread operator

3:35

38

useMousePosition Hook

Detect the user's mouse position on a bound element

4:55

39

useReducer with useContext Part 1

Create a reducer to be used in a context

7:33

40

useReducer with useContext Part 2

Incorporate useReducer with useContext

6:48

41

useReducer with useContext Part 3

Connect the context and reducer with the frontend

5:43

42

Netlify

Deploy to production using Netlify

5:08

43

Gatsby Cloud

Deploy to production using Gatsby Cloud

6:19

44

Gatsby Plugin Image

Use gatsby-plugin-image for automatic image resizing, formatting, and higher performance

8:11

45

useOnClickOutside Hook

Toggle a modal visibility with a useOnClickOutside hook

6:32

46

useWindowSize Hook

Create a hook to determine the width and height of the window

4:14

47

usePageBottom hook

Detect if the user scrolled to the bottom of the page

4:48

48

useLocalStorage Hook

Store an item in a browser's local storage

5:27

49

Three.js in React Part 1

Bring your website to life with beautiful 3D objects

17:33

50

Three.js in React Part 2

Bring your website to life with beautiful 3D objects

11:18