Variants

Simple typed prop styles through styled()

Variants let you create typed props quickly on your styled() components.

Here's an example:

import { Stack, styled } from '@tamagui/core'

export const Circle = styled(Stack, {
  borderRadius: 100_000_000,

  variants: {
    pin: {
      top: {
        position: 'absolute',
        top: 0,
      },
    },

    centered: {
      true: {
        alignItems: 'center',
        justifyContent: 'center',
      },
    },

    size: {
      '...size': (size, { tokens }) => {
        return {
          width: tokens.size[size] ?? size,
          height: tokens.size[size] ?? size,
        }
      },
    },
  },
})

We can use these like so:

<Circle pin="top" centered size="$lg" />

We're showing off a few different styles of variants here. We'll expand on them below:

Functional variant

If you need more complex types, or simply prefer a shorter syntax, you can use a single function instead of using the object syntax for variants:

import { Stack, styled } from '@tamagui/core'

export const MyStack = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    doubleMargin: (val: number) => ({
      margin: val * 2,
    }),
  },
})

Alternatively, Tamagui provides helpers that let you quickly accept certain types:

Typed variants

Boolean

The special keys true and false will map to a boolean. So the centered prop will be typed to accept true or false, and when true it will apply it's styles.

Other types

You can use a pseudo Typescript syntax for other variants:

:string - Accepts a string
:boolean - Accepts a boolean (less precendence than true or false)
:number - Accepts a number

Example:

import { Stack, styled } from '@tamagui/core'

export const ColorfulStack = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    color: {
      ':string': (color) => {
        // color is of type "string"
        return {
          color,
          borderColor: color,
        }
      },
    },
  },
})

When you write variants, you have to be explicit so Typescript and the runtime know exactly which props you accept. This can be especially cumbersome when you want to "gather" all the values of a specific token. For example, without spread variants, if you wanted to have a pad property that accepted all the keys from tokens.size, you'd have to write this:

// in your tamagui.config.ts:
const tokens = createTokens({
  size: {
    sm: 10,
    md: 15,
    lg: 25,
    // ...
  }
})

export default createTamagui({
  tokens
})

// somewhere in your app:
const MyButton = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    pad: {
      sm: {
        padding: tokens.size.sm,
      },
      md: {
        padding: tokens.size.md,
      },
      lg: {
        padding: tokens.size.lg,
      },
      // ...
    }
  }
})

// now you can
<MyButton pad="$lg" />

This is verbose, and only gets more verbose if you add more sizes. It would require always updating every component every time you change the tokens.

Spread variants solve this problem. Instead, we can write:

// in your tamagui.config.ts:
const tokens = createTokens({
  size: {
    sm: 10,
    md: 15,
    lg: 25,
    // ...
  }
})

export default createTamagui({
  tokens
})

// somewhere in your app:
const MyButton = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    pad: {
      '...size': (val, { tokens }) => ({
        padding: tokens.size[val]
      }),
    }
  }
})

// now you can
<MyButton pad="$lg" />

Spread variants save you from having to define hardcoded styles for every key (sm, md, lg) in your token object. They collect values from any of your top level token categories. So you can only use ...color, ...size, ...space, ...font, ...fontSize, ...lineHeight, ...radius, ...letterSpace, or ...zIndex. They must be prefixed with ... as that is how they are typed properly and assembled for runtime.

The Spread variant function will receive two arguments: the first is the value given to the property ("$lg"), and the second is an object with { theme, tokens, props }.

theme a proxy to your theme that lets you access all theme values using normal keys, or with a $ prefix.
tokens of type TokensParsed, the tokens from createTokens, but the keys all start with $.

Because you can expand them to any number of styles, they can save a ton of code:

const Square = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    size: {
      '...size': (size, { tokens }) => {
        // size === '$lg'
        // tokens.size.$lg === 25
        return {
          width: tokens.size[size] ?? size,
          height: tokens.size[size] ?? size,
        }
      },
    },
  },
})

Catch-all spread variant

Using '...' lets you use a function to grab all variants that don't match:

import { Stack, styled } from '@tamagui/core'

export const ColorfulStack = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    colorful: {
      true: {
        color: 'red',
      },
      '...': (val) => {
        // this will catch any other values that don't match
        return {
          color: val,
        }
      },
    },
  },
})

defaultVariants

Sometimes you'd like to set a default value for a variant you've just set on your styled() component. Due to the way Typescript types parse from left to right, we can't properly type variants directly on the object you define them on.

The defaultVariants option allows you to set these, properly typed:

const Square = styled(Stack, {
  variants: {
    size: {
      '...size': (size, { tokens }) => {
        // size === '$lg'
        // tokens.size.$lg === 25
        return {
          width: tokens.size[size] ?? size,
          height: tokens.size[size] ?? size,
        }
      },
    },
  },

  // <Square /> will get size '$10' from size tokens automatically
  defaultVariants: {
    size: '$10',
  },
})

Variants and Pseudos, Media Queries

Variants have the full power of the Tamagui styling system, including pseudo and media styles:

const SizedText = styled(Text, {
  variants: {
    size: {
      md: {
         fontSize: '$sm',

         $gtMd: {
            fontSize: '$md',
         },

        $gt2xl: {
            fontSize: '$lg',
         }
      }
    }
  }
})

Variants and Parent Variants

Styled components can access their parent components variants, even in their variants:

const ColorfulText = styled(Text, {
  variants: {
    colored: {
      true: {
        color: '$color'
      }
    },

    large: {
      true: {
        fontSize: '$8'
      }
    }
  }
})

const MyParagraph = styled(ColorfulText, {
  colored: true,

  variants: {
    hero: {
      true: {
        large: true,
      }
    }
  }
})

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