Making a Sass mixin with optional arguments

Question

I am writing a mixin like this:

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:\"\") {
    -webkit-box-shadow:          


        

Answer 1

Old question, I know, but I think this is still relevant. Arguably, a clearer way of doing this is to use the unquote() function (which SASS has had since version 3.0.0):

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:"") {
  -webkit-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
  -moz-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
  box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
}

This is roughly equivalent to Josh's answer, but I think the explicitly named function is less obfuscated than the string interpolation syntax.

Answer 2

@mixin box-shadow($left: 0, $top: 0, $blur: 6px, $color: hsla(0,0%,0%,0.25), $inset: false) {
    @if $inset {
        -webkit-box-shadow: inset $left $top $blur $color;
        -moz-box-shadow: inset $left $top $blur $color;
        box-shadow: inset $left $top $blur $color;
    } @else {
        -webkit-box-shadow: $left $top $blur $color;
        -moz-box-shadow: $left $top $blur $color;
        box-shadow: $left $top $blur $color;
    }
}

Answer 3

Super simple way

Just add a default value of none to $inset - so

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset: none) { ....

Now when no $inset is passed nothing will be displayed.

Answer 4

A DRY'r Way of Doing It

And, generally, a neat trick to remove the quotes.

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:"") {
  -webkit-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color #{$inset};
  -moz-box-shadow:    $top $left $blur $color #{$inset};
  box-shadow:         $top $left $blur $color #{$inset};
}

SASS Version 3+, you can use unquote():

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:"") {
  -webkit-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
  -moz-box-shadow:    $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
  box-shadow:         $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
} 

Picked this up over here: pass a list to a mixin as a single argument with SASS

Answer 5

You can always assign null to your optional arguments. Here is a simple fix

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:null) { //assigning null to inset value makes it optional
    -webkit-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color $inset;
    -moz-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color $inset;
    box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color $inset;
}

Answer 6

Sass supports @if statements. (See the documentation.)

You could write your mixin like this:

@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:"") {
  @if $inset != "" {
    -webkit-box-shadow:$top $left $blur $color $inset;
    -moz-box-shadow:$top $left $blur $color $inset;
    box-shadow:$top $left $blur $color $inset;
  }
}