If youโre a front-end developer like me, youโve probably hacked around via extra classes, JavaScript, or pre-processing just to get styles to behave differently in certain contexts. Well, wave goodbye to that extra overhead, because the introduction of the ๐ข๐() function in CSS brings true inline conditional logic to stylesheets.
Hereโs the long-form takeaway:
Weโve historically treated CSS as purely declarative - โthis class means this styleโ - without letting it make decisions based on context, environment or state. The new ๐ข๐() function changes that. You can now write something like:
๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ญ๐จ๐ง {
๐ฐ๐ข๐๐ญ๐ก: ๐ข๐(๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐(๐๐ง๐ฒ-๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ: ๐๐ข๐ง๐): ๐๐๐ฉ๐ฑ; ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐: ๐๐๐ฉ๐ฑ);
}
Which means: โIf the input device has a fine pointer (like a mouse), width is 30px; otherwise (touch devices) go 44px.โ All inside a single rule, no separate media query required.
Why this matters:
1๏ธโฃ Cleaner code. One rule, one spot - less duplication and easier maintenance.
2๏ธโฃ Smarter styling. CSS itself can respond to user preferences, device capabilities, theme states or custom properties right inside the stylesheet.
3๏ธโฃ Less JavaScript for UI logic. The more you can offload into CSS, the more performant and predictable your UI becomes.
Of course, itโs not perfect yet. Browser support is still in progress - early adopters only so far.
But that simply means the savvy teams will start planning for it now and gain ahead of the curve.
If youโre working on performance-sensitive applications, or building rich interactive UIs, think about how this could simplify your architecture. Could you move some logic out of your script files and into CSS? Could your dashboards or components become more maintainable because styles themselves adapt?
In my world (where accessibility, animations, web performance are core), this means more expressive CSS, fewer workarounds, less state-drift between JS and style layers. Itโs another step toward โdesign logicโ living closer to its natural home.
Let your CSS do the thinking - even if just a little.
Top comments (1)
The new if() function finally brings native conditional logic to CSS ๐ฅ