Defining Variable Variables using LESS CSS

Question

Say I have three separate color schemes that are used on various pages in a site. Each color has a a light, medium and dark tint defined, and the color scheme is defined by a class in the body. Assume that the "red" color scheme is the default. Like this:

Color Definitions:

@red-lt:   #121;
@red-md:   #232;
@red-dk:   #343;
@green-lt: #454;
@green-md: #565;
@green-dk: #676;
@blue-lt:  #787;
@blue-md:  #898;
@blue-dk:  #909;

Basic Default Style Example

body { background-color: @red-dk;
  #container { background-color: @red-md;
     p { color: @red-dk; }
  }
}

Different Color Scheme Style Example

body.green { background-color: @green-dk;
  #container { background-color: @green-md;
     p { color: @green-dk; }
  }
}

I'd like to use variables so that I don't have to re-write all of the color variations for each scheme, so that I can just write something like this:

body.[color-var] { background-color: @[color-var]-dk;
  #container { background-color: @[color-var]-md;
     p { color: @[color-var]-dk; }
  }
}

…but I can't quite wrap my head around how to accomplish that. Help…?

Answer 1

Use interpolation and escaping, parentheses in the selector and parametric mixins to get the desired effect:

• Dynamic variables by interpolation: In a string, "@{variable}" is replaced with the value of the variable. They can also be nested: Given @{@{var}-foo} and @var: bar;, the result is "barfoo".
  The resulting value is quoted. To remove these quotes, prefix ~.
• Dynamic selectors by Selector interpolation: body.@{var} turns into body.bar.

Example:

@red-md:   #232;
@red-dk:   #343;

.setColor(@color) {
    body.@{color} { background-color: ~"@{@{color}-dk}";
        #container { background-color: ~"@{@{color}-md}";
         p { color: ~"@{@{color}-md}"; }
      }
    }
}
.setColor(~"red"); // Escape to prevent "red" turning "#FF0000"
//.setColor(~"blue"); etc..

Turns into:

body.red {
  background-color: #334433;
}
body.red #container {
  background-color: #223322;
}
body.red #container p {
  color: #223322;
}

Note: When the answer was originally written, selector interpolation did not exist. See the previous revision for the solution if you're working with an old LESS compiler (before LESS 1.3.1a). Support for the old method will be dropped in LESS 1.4.0.

Answer 2

If those values really follow a predictable format like that, seems like a perfect case for a parametric mixin:

Less:

@red:   #232;
@green: #565;
@blue:  #898;


.theme (@color) {
  background-color: @color - #111;
  #container {
    background-color: @color;
    p { color: @color + #111; }
  }
}

body.red {
  .theme(@red);
}

Compiled CSS:

body.red{background-color:#112211;}
body.red #container{background-color:#223322;}
body.red #container p{color:#334433;}

Answer 3

I know this question is pretty old, but for those that come to this post my answer maybe can help

I`m not really sure for what you want to use this, but one of my suggestion is based on @ScottS answer. On my real world, I need to create a web app, where it would show several brands and each brand have their own text color, background and so on... so I started to chase a way to accomplish this in LESS, what I could easily do on SASS and the result is below:

LESS

// Code from Seven Phase Max
// ............................................................
// .for
.for(@i, @n) {.-each(@i)}
.for(@n)     when (isnumber(@n)) {.for(1, @n)}
.for(@i, @n) when not (@i = @n)  {
    .for((@i + (@n - @i) / abs(@n - @i)), @n);
}

// ............................................................
// .for-each

.for(@array)   when (default()) {.for-impl_(length(@array))}
.for-impl_(@i) when (@i > 1)    {.for-impl_((@i - 1))}
.for-impl_(@i)                  {.-each(extract(@array, @i))}


// Brands
@dodge : "dodge";
@ford : "ford";
@chev : "chev";

// Colors
@dodge-color : "#fff";
@ford-color : "#000";
@chev-color : "#ff0";

// Setting variables and escaping than
@brands: ~"dodge" ~"ford" ~"chev";

// Define our variable   
.define(@var) {
  @brand-color: '@{var}-color';
}

// Starting the mixin
.color() {
    // Generating the loop to each brand
    .for(@brands); .-each(@name) {
        // After loop happens, it checks what brand is being called
        .define(@name);
         // When the brand is found, match the selector and color
        .brand-@{name} & {
            color: @@brand-color;
        }
    }
}

.carColor {
    .color();
}

Te result will be:

CSS

.brand-dodge .carColor {
    color: "#fff";
}
.brand-ford .carColor {
    color: "#000";
}
.brand-chev .carColor {
    color: "#ff0";
}

This is very tricky and I had to use several elements to get what I needed, first used a set of mixins provided by Seven Phase Max and you can find it here and than, the @ScottS answer was the piece that was missing fro my puzzle... hope this helps you and others that need to create a set of Variables to be part of another variable and create a more dynamic less file.

You can copy my entire code and test at http://lesstester.com/

Answer 4

Try this

@red-lt:   #121;
@red-md:   #232;
@red-dk:   #343;
@green-lt: #454;
@green-md: #565;
@green-dk: #676;
@blue-lt:  #787;
@blue-md:  #898;
@blue-dk:  #909;

@color: 'red-lt';

div{
background: @@color;
border: 1px solid lighten(@@color,20%);
}

Answer 5

To my knowledge, variable variable names are not supported in LESS. You could however restructure your declarations in a more semantic manner:

/* declare palette */
@red-lt:   #121; 
@red-md:   #232; 
@red-dk:   #343; 
@green-lt: #454; 
@green-md: #565; 
@green-dk: #676; 
@blue-lt:  #787; 
@blue-md:  #898; 
@blue-dk:  #909; 

/* declare variables based on palette colors */
@lt: @red-lt;
@md: @red-md;
@dk: @red-dk;

/* ...and only use them for main declarations */
body { background-color: @dk;        
  #container { background-color: @md;        
     p { color: @dk; }        
  }        
}  

This should let you switch between palettes quite painlessly by avoiding explicit color references.