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The Ultimate Guide To Help You Create A Select With Tailwind CSS

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Select

What is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that provides a set of pre-defined classes to create responsive and customizable user interfaces. It allows developers to quickly build complex layouts and components without writing custom CSS code.

The description of Select UI component

A select UI component is a form element that allows users to choose one or more options from a list. It is commonly used in web forms to collect user input such as country, state, or city.

Why use Tailwind CSS to create a Select UI component?

Tailwind CSS provides a set of pre-defined classes that can be used to style a select UI component. This saves developers time and effort in writing custom CSS code. Additionally, Tailwind CSS is highly customizable, which means developers can easily modify the styles of the select UI component to match the design of their website or application.

The preview of Select UI component

To create a select UI component with Tailwind CSS, we will use the select and option HTML elements. We will also apply Tailwind CSS classes to style the select UI component. Here's a preview of what the select UI component will look like:

Free download of the Select's source code

The source code of Select UI component

To create a select UI component with Tailwind CSS, we will use the following HTML and Tailwind CSS classes:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/css/boxicons.min.css" />
<script defer src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/cdn.min.js"></script>


<!-- page -->
<main class="flex min-h-screen w-full items-center justify-center">
    <!-- component -->
    <div x-data="select" class="relative w-[30rem]" @click.outside="open = false">
        <!-- trigger button -->
        <button type="button" @click="toggle"
            class="flex w-full items-center justify-between rounded bg-white p-2 ring-1 ring-gray-300"
            :class="(open) && 'ring-blue-600'">
            <span x-text="(language == '') ? 'Choose language' : language"></span>
            <span class="text-2xl w-5 h-5 grid place-content-center"><i class='bx bx-chevron-down'></i></span>
        </button>

        <!-- list items -->
        <ul class="z-2 absolute mt-2 w-full rounded bg-gray-50 ring-1 ring-gray-300" x-show="open">
            <li class="cursor-pointer select-none p-2 hover:bg-gray-200" @click="setLanguage('Python')">
                Python
            </li>
            <li class="cursor-pointer select-none p-2 hover:bg-gray-200" @click="setLanguage('PHP')">
                PHP
            </li>
            <li class="cursor-pointer select-none p-2 hover:bg-gray-200" @click="setLanguage('C#')">
                C#
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</main>

<script>
    document.addEventListener("alpine:init", () => {
        Alpine.data("select", () => ({
            open: false,
            language: "",

            toggle() {
                this.open = !this.open;
            },

            setLanguage(val) {
                this.language = val;
                this.open = false;
            },
        }));
    });
</script>

How to create a Select with Tailwind CSS?

  1. Create a select element in your HTML code:
<select class="block w-full px-4 py-2 mt-2 text-gray-700 bg-white border border-gray-300 rounded-md shadow-sm focus:outline-none focus:ring-indigo-500 focus:border-indigo-500 sm:text-sm">
  <option>Option 1</option>
  <option>Option 2</option>
  <option>Option 3</option>
</select>
  1. Apply Tailwind CSS classes to style the select UI component. Here's a breakdown of the classes used:
  • block: Makes the select element a block-level element.
  • w-full: Makes the select element full-width.
  • px-4: Adds horizontal padding to the select element.
  • py-2: Adds vertical padding to the select element.
  • mt-2: Adds top margin to the select element.
  • text-gray-700: Sets the text color of the select element to gray.
  • bg-white: Sets the background color of the select element to white.
  • border: Adds a border to the select element.
  • border-gray-300: Sets the border color of the select element to gray.
  • rounded-md: Adds rounded corners to the select element.
  • shadow-sm: Adds a shadow to the select element.
  • focus:outline-none: Removes the outline when the select element is in focus.
  • focus:ring-indigo-500: Adds a ring around the select element when it is in focus.
  • focus:border-indigo-500: Sets the border color of the select element to indigo when it is in focus.
  • sm:text-sm: Sets the font size of the select element to small.
  1. Add option elements inside the select element to define the options:
<select class="block w-full px-4 py-2 mt-2 text-gray-700 bg-white border border-gray-300 rounded-md shadow-sm focus:outline-none focus:ring-indigo-500 focus:border-indigo-500 sm:text-sm">
  <option>Option 1</option>
  <option>Option 2</option>
  <option>Option 3</option>
</select>
  1. Customize the select UI component by modifying the Tailwind CSS classes. For example, you can change the background color of the select element to blue by using the bg-blue-500 class:
<select class="block w-full px-4 py-2 mt-2 text-gray-700 bg-blue-500 border border-gray-300 rounded-md shadow-sm focus:outline-none focus:ring-indigo-500 focus:border-indigo-500 sm:text-sm">
  <option>Option 1</option>
  <option>Option 2</option>
  <option>Option 3</option>
</select>

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to create a select UI component with Tailwind CSS. We have seen how Tailwind CSS provides a set of pre-defined classes that can be used to style the select UI component. We have also learned how to customize the select UI component by modifying the Tailwind CSS classes. With Tailwind CSS, developers can quickly and easily create responsive and customizable user interfaces.