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Cover image for String.raw in Tailwind CSS source code.
Ramu Narasinga
Ramu Narasinga

Posted on Edited on Originally published at thinkthroo.com

String.raw in Tailwind CSS source code.

In this article, we analyze the usage of String.raw in Tailwindcss source code.

String.raw

MDN documentation says that:

“The String.raw() static method is a tag function of template literals.

This is similar to the r prefix in Python, or the @ prefix in C# for string literals.

It’s used to get the raw string form of template literals — that is, substitutions

(e.g. ${foo}) are processed, but escape sequences (e.g. \n) are not.“

Example 1:

The below example is picked from MDN:

// Create a variable that uses a Windows
// path without escaping the backslashes:
const filePath = String.raw`C:\Development\profile\aboutme.html`;
console.log(`The file was uploaded from: ${filePath}`);
// Expected output: "The file was uploaded from: C:\Development\profile\aboutme.html"
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This above example’s execution result looks like this:

> "The file was uploaded from: C:\Development\profile\aboutme.html"
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Example 2:

If you run the same example without String.raw using the code below:

// Create a variable that uses a Windows
// path without escaping the backslashes:
const filePath = `C:\Development\profile\aboutme.html`;
console.log(`The file was uploaded from: ${filePath}`);
// Expected output: "The file was uploaded from: C:\Development\profile\aboutme.html"
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Result looks like this:

> "The file was uploaded from: C:Developmentprofileaboutme.html"
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Example 3:

If you run the same example involving \n using the code below:

const filePathWithoutStringRaw = `\nC:\Development\profile\aboutme.html`;
const filePathWithStringRaw = String.raw`\nC:\Development\profile\aboutme.html`;
console.log("filePathWithoutStringRaw:", filePathWithoutStringRaw)
console.log("*******")
console.log("filePathWithStringRaw:", filePathWithStringRaw)
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Result looks like this:

> "filePathWithoutStringRaw:" "
C:Developmentprofileaboutme.html"
> "*******"
> "filePathWithStringRaw:" "\nC:\Development\profile\aboutme.html"
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Image description

How Tailwindcss uses String.raw:

ui.spec.ts test file assigns String.raw to html and css.

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html is found to be used in a lot of tests written in ui.spec.ts

Let’s take a closer look at this test code:

for (let [classes, expected] of [
 [
 'bg-linear-to-r from-red-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgb(239, 68, 68) 0%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 100%)',
 ],
 [
 'bg-linear-to-r via-red-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0%, rgb(239, 68, 68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 100%)',
 ],
 [
 'bg-linear-to-r to-red-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0%, rgb(239, 68, 68) 100%)',
 ],
 [
 'bg-linear-to-r from-red-500 to-blue-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgb(239, 68, 68) 0%, rgb(59, 130, 246) 100%)',
 ],
 [
 'bg-linear-to-r via-red-500 to-blue-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0%, rgb(239, 68, 68) 50%, rgb(59, 130, 246) 100%)',
 ],
 [
 'bg-linear-to-r from-red-500 via-green-500 to-blue-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgb(239, 68, 68) 0%, rgb(34, 197, 94) 50%, rgb(59, 130, 246) 100%)',
 ],
 [
 'bg-linear-[to_right,var( - color-red-500),var( - color-green-500),var( - color-blue-500)]',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgb(239, 68, 68), rgb(34, 197, 94), rgb(59, 130, 246))',
 ],
]) {
 test(`background gradient, "${classes}"`, async ({ page }) => {
   let { getPropertyValue } = await render(
   page,
   html`<div id="x" class="${classes}">Hello world</div>`,
   )
   expect(await getPropertyValue('#x', 'background-image')).toEqual(expected)
 })
}
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It is interesting to see an entire array defined with in a for loop.

html`<div id="x" class="${classes}">Hello world</div>`,
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${classes} gets replaced with first item of the below array:

[
 'bg-linear-to-r from-red-500',
 'linear-gradient(to right, rgb(239, 68, 68) 0%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 100%)',
],
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About me:

Hey, my name is Ramu Narasinga. I study large open-source projects and create content about their codebase architecture and best practices, sharing it through articles, videos.

I am open to work on interesting projects. Send me an email at ramu.narasinga@gmail.com

My Github — https://github.com/ramu-narasinga

My website — https://ramunarasinga.com

My Youtube channel — https://www.youtube.com/@ramu-narasinga

Learning platform — https://thinkthroo.com

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Production-grade projects — https://app.thinkthroo.com/production-grade-projects

References:

  1. https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/blob/next/packages/tailwindcss/tests/ui.spec.ts

  2. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/raw

  3. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34772762/what-are-the-actual-uses-of-es6-raw-string-access

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