Loading...

What's the difference between SCSS and Sass?

question front-end css
Ram Patra Published on January 3, 2024

Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) and SCSS (Sassy CSS) are both preprocessors that extend the capabilities of standard CSS, allowing for variables, nested rules, mixins, and more. However, there’s a common misunderstanding about the differences between Sass and SCSS. They are not actually two different languages; rather, they are two different syntaxes for the same Sass preprocessor.

Here are the key differences:

  1. Syntax Style:

    • Sass: Uses an indentation-based syntax (similar to Python). It doesn’t use braces {} or semicolons ;, relying on the indentation level to specify blocks.
    • SCSS: Uses a syntax that is more similar to traditional CSS. It uses braces and semicolons, making it easier for those familiar with CSS to adapt.
  2. File Extensions:

    • Sass: Files have the .sass extension.
    • SCSS: Files use the .scss extension.
  3. Compatibility with CSS:

    • Sass: Being indentation-based, it’s not directly compatible with CSS syntax. Existing CSS code must be rewritten to match the Sass syntax.
    • SCSS: Fully compatible with CSS. This means that any valid CSS is also valid SCSS, allowing for easier integration with existing CSS files.
  4. Ease of Learning and Use:

    • Sass: Might be more streamlined due to its concise syntax but could be challenging for those used to CSS-like syntax.
    • SCSS: Tends to be easier to learn for those already familiar with CSS, as it mirrors CSS syntax closely.

In terms of features and functionality (like variables, mixins, functions, inheritance, etc.), both Sass and SCSS are equivalent. The difference lies purely in their style of syntax. Over time, SCSS has become more popular and widely adopted, primarily because of its similarity to traditional CSS, which reduces the learning curve and simplifies the transition from plain CSS.

All modern versions of Sass compile both .sass and .scss files, and there are no features available in one syntax that are not available in the other.

Presentify

Take your presentation to the next level.

FaceScreen

Put your face and name on your screen.

KeyScreen

Show keypresses on your screen.

ToDoBar

Your to-dos on your menu bar.

SimpleFill

Fill forms using your right-click menu.

IconSim

Preview your Mac app icons.

Ram Patra Published on January 3, 2024
Image placeholder

Keep reading

If this article was helpful, others might be too

question css front-end September 22, 2024 How to scroll smoothly to any section of the page with just one line of css?

To enable smooth scrolling when clicking an <a> tag in any website, you can add the below CSS code. If you want all anchor links to scroll smoothly, you can do so by applying the scroll-behavior property in your global CSS.

question nextjs front-end July 21, 2024 How to fix Next.js generating Open Graph images with localhost in the url?

This happens when you have not set the metadata properly. Just make sure you have set the metadataBase property like below:export const metadata = { metadataBase: new URL('https://rampatra.com'), // other configs}Learn more from the official docs.

question nextjs front-end November 12, 2024 How to define schemas, foreign keys, relations, and query data by performing joins in a Nextjs app using Supabase and Drizzle?

Drizzle is an ORM that makes it easy to work with db, data migrations, etc. Here’s how you can define foreign keys, relations, and perform table joins using Drizzle ORM in a Next.js app with Supabase:

Like my work?

Please, feel free to reach out. I would be more than happy to chat.