react-switch

What is react-switch?

The react-switch npm package is a lightweight and customizable switch component for React applications. It allows developers to easily integrate toggle switches into their user interfaces, providing a simple and intuitive way for users to switch between two states.

What are react-switch's main functionalities?

Basic Switch

This code demonstrates how to implement a basic switch using the react-switch package. The switch toggles between two states, and the state is managed using React's useState hook.

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import Switch from 'react-switch';

function App() {
  const [checked, setChecked] = useState(false);

  const handleChange = nextChecked => {
    setChecked(nextChecked);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <Switch onChange={handleChange} checked={checked} />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Custom Styling

This code sample shows how to customize the appearance of the switch. You can change the colors of the switch when it is on or off, as well as the handle colors.

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import Switch from 'react-switch';

function App() {
  const [checked, setChecked] = useState(false);

  const handleChange = nextChecked => {
    setChecked(nextChecked);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <Switch
        onChange={handleChange}
        checked={checked}
        offColor="#888"
        onColor="#0f0"
        offHandleColor="#fff"
        onHandleColor="#000"
      />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Disabled Switch

This example demonstrates how to disable the switch. When the switch is disabled, it cannot be toggled by the user.

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import Switch from 'react-switch';

function App() {
  const [checked, setChecked] = useState(false);

  const handleChange = nextChecked => {
    setChecked(nextChecked);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <Switch onChange={handleChange} checked={checked} disabled={true} />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Other packages similar to react-switch

rc-switch

rc-switch is another React component for creating toggle switches. It offers similar functionality to react-switch but with a different API and styling options. It is also highly customizable and supports various themes.

react-toggle

react-toggle is a widely used package for creating toggle switches in React applications. It provides a simple API and allows for extensive customization. Compared to react-switch, react-toggle has a slightly different design and may be preferred for its simplicity and ease of use.

react-ios-switch

react-ios-switch is a React component that mimics the appearance of iOS-style toggle switches. It is ideal for applications that aim to provide a consistent iOS-like user experience. While it offers similar functionality to react-switch, its design is specifically tailored to match iOS aesthetics.

README

react-switch

• Draggable with the mouse or with a touch screen.
• Accessible to visually impaired users and those who can't use a mouse.
• Customizable - Easy to customize size, color and more.
• Small package size (<3kb). No dependencies other than prop-types.
• It Just Works - Sensible default styling. Uses inline styles, so no need to import a separate css file.

Demo

Take a look at the demo

Installation

npm install react-switch

Usage

import React, { Component } from "react";
import Switch from "react-switch";

class SwitchExample extends Component {
  constructor() {
    super();
    this.state = { checked: false };
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
  }

  handleChange(checked) {
    this.setState({ checked });
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <label htmlFor="normal-switch">
        <span>Switch with default style</span>
        <Switch
          onChange={this.handleChange}
          checked={this.state.checked}
          id="normal-switch"
        />
      </label>
    );
  }
}

Accessibility considerations

The Switch component in the above example is nested inside a label tag. The label tag has an htmlFor-value that is identical to the id-value that is passed to the Switch ("normal-switch"). These features are there to make the toggle-switch accessible to people with reduced sight who use screen readers. It will make screen readers read out the label text when the toggle-switch is selected. If you instead just put some text next to the switch, the screen reader will just read out "checkbox - not checked" or something like that and the user will have no idea what it is for. (The switch is actually a checkbox under the hood.)

It's not strictly necessary to both nest the switch inside the label AND use the htmlFor prop to link the label and the switch. It should be enough to do just one. However, using both will "cover 100% of assistive devices" and free you from annoying eslint errors.

Alternatively, you can use the aria-labelledby or aria-label props to give the switch a label. You can see examples of this at the bottom of the demo page.

API

Prop	Type	Default	Description
checked	bool	Required	If true, the switch is set to checked. If false, it is not checked.
onChange ([checked], [event], [id])	func	Required	Invoked when the user clicks or drags the switch. It is passed three arguments: checked, which is a boolean that describes the presumed future state of the checked prop (1), the event object (2) and the id prop (3).
disabled	bool	false	When disabled, the switch will no longer be interactive and its colors will be greyed out.
offColor	string	'#888'	The switch will take on this color when it is not checked. Only accepts hex-colors.
onColor	string	'#080'	The switch will take on this color when it is checked. Only accepts hex-colors.
offHandleColor	string	'#fff'	The handle of the switch will take on this color when it is not checked. Only accepts hex-colors.
onHandleColor	string	'#fff'	The handle of the switch will take on this color when it is checked. Only accepts hex-colors.
handleDiameter	number	null	The diameter of the handle, measured in pixels. By default it will be slightly smaller than the height of the switch.
uncheckedIcon	element or bool	Default value	An icon that will be shown on the switch when it is not checked. Pass in false if you don't want any icon.
checkedIcon	element or bool	Default value	An icon that will be shown on the switch when it is checked. Pass in false if you don't want any icon.
boxShadow	string	null	The default box-shadow of the handle. You can read up on the box-shadow syntax on MDN.
activeBoxShadow	string	'0px 0px 2px 3px #33bbff'	The box-shadow of the handle when it is active or focused. Do not set this to null, since it is important for accessibility.
height	number	28	The height of the background of the switch, measured in pixels.
width	number	56	The width of the background of the switch, measured in pixels.
className	string	null	Set as the className of the outer shell of the switch. Useful for positioning the switch.
id	string	null	Set as an attribute to the embedded checkbox. This is useful for the associated label, which can point to the id in its htmlFor attribute.
aria-labelledby	string	null	Set as an attribute of the embedded checkbox. This should be the same as the id of a label. You should use this if you don't want your label to be a <label> element
aria-label	string	null	Set as an attribute of the embedded checkbox. Its value will only be seen by screen readers.

The following props have to be either 3-digit or 6-digit hex-colors: offColor, onColor, offHandleColor, and onHandleColor. This is because this library calculates intermediate color values based on the hex-color strings.

Examples of valid colors: '#abc', '#123456'

Examples of invalid colors: 'red', 'rgb(0,0,0)'

License

MIT

Changelog

[2.3.0 - 2017-12-27]

Added

• Added TypeScript declaration file