#Space

#Description

The Space component provides margins within the provided spacing patterns.

The reason why this exists is to make your syntax as clean as possible. This way you see directly in words what the spacing is for every affected component

#Spacing Table

NB: In some circumstances you may be in need of using 0.25rem (4px) - therefore xx-small also exists, but as a single type. So, combining xx-small and small would not result in 0.25rem, but still remain 1rem.

#Value Format

There are a couple of different ways you can define the spacing types and values:

• Types: small small x-small (combine types up to 10rem)
• number: 2.5 (equivalent to rem)
• string(rem): 2.5rem
• string(px): 40px (gets converted to rem)
• boolean: true (equivalent to small), false (equivalent to zero)

To get a spacing of e.g. 2.5rem (40px)- you may combine types large and x-small.

{/* All of these methods will result in the same spacing */}
<Space top="large x-small" right="2.5" bottom="2.5rem" left="40px" />

With React, you can also use an object with the different directions:

{/* All of these methods will result in the same spacing */}
<Space
  space={{
    top: 'large x-small',
    right: '2.5',
    bottom: '2.5rem',
    left: '40px',
  }}
/>

#Components and Spacing

Every component supports the spacing patterns, so it's possible to send in the top, right, bottom, left and space properties directly, like:

<Button top="large x-small medium" />
<Button space={{ top: 'large x-small medium' }} />

#Spacing shorthands

A shorthand for getting 1rem (most used) is to simply send in a boolean, set as true. No given value in JSX means true, so you only need the property key:

{/* Equivalent to top="small" */}
<Button top />
{/* Equivalent to top="small" right="small" bottom="small" left="small" */}
<Button space />

In order to set all four directions at once, you can provide a string as the space value:

<Button space="large x-small medium" />

#Does it not work as expected?

Is margin not giving the expected spacing? That may be the reason due to Margin Collapsing. Margins collapse in the following situations:

• Adjacent siblings
• Completely empty boxes
• Parent and first or last child element

The best solution is to only use one direction of margins e.g. bottom. Or you can set the collapse property to false.

#Margin collapsing

In order to help out to handle unwanted margin collapsing in typography elements, se this example

#Conditional Rest

For resetting spacing (margin: 0) only when no spacing is defined, you can make use of dnb-space__reset.

The following example will result in margin: 0.5rem 0 0 0:

<ul class="my-list dnb-space__reset dnb-space__top--small">
  <!-- some content -->
</ul>

More details:

1. Because of the browser default styles, our list has some margin.
2. If we would want to "reset" these styles to a margin of 0 directly on .my-list, we would not be able to use dnb-space__top--small because of the CSS specificity is lower.

#Demos

#Spacing method #1 - Space component. The RedBox is only to visualize the result.

<RedBox>
  <Space top="large x-small">
    <Input label="Input:" />
  </Space>
</RedBox>

#Spacing method #2 - FormRow component

<FormRow>
  <Input label="Input A:" />
</FormRow>
<FormRow top="medium">
  <Input label="Input B:" />
</FormRow>

#Spacing method #3 - Define the space directly

<FormRow>
  <Input label="Input A:" right="small" />
  <Input label="Input B:" />
</FormRow>

#Spacing with no margin collapse, due to the flex usage

#All four values will result in an equivalent margin

#Visual space testing