Error: The parent selector "&" cannot be used in top-level selectors. $::webkit-input-placeholder

Question

Error: The parent selector "&" cannot be used in top-level selectors. $::webkit-input-placeholder

I am facing an issue while trying to run a legacy create-react-app that utilizes Sass. Initially, when I ran npm start, I encountered the error 'Cannot find module sass', which resembled the message found in this stack overflow post. To resolve this, I attempted removing node modules, installing npm react-scripts, and then running npm install again. However, now when I execute the command 'npm start', I am presented with the following error:

ERROR in ./src/App.scss (./node_modules/css-loader/dist/cjs.js??ruleSet[1].rules[1].oneOf[7].use[1]!./node_modules/postcss-loader/dist/cjs.js??ruleSet[1].rules[1].oneOf[7].use[2]!./node_modules/resolve-url-loader/index.js??ruleSet[1].rules[1].oneOf[7].use[3]!./node_modules/react-scripts/node_modules/sass-loader/dist/cjs.js??ruleSet[1].rules[1].oneOf[7].use[4]!./src/App.scss)
Module build failed (from ./node_modules/react-scripts/node_modules/sass-loader/dist/cjs.js):
SassError: Top-level selectors may not contain the parent selector "&".
   ╷
10 │     &::-webkit-input-placeholder {
   │     ^
   ╵
  src\scss\_mixins.scss 10:2            placeholder-color()
  src\scss\basic\_typography.scss 59:1  @import
  src\scss\_style.scss 7:9              @import
  src\App.scss 1:9                      root stylesheet

Furthermore, here is the snippet from my package.json file:

{
  "name": "tf-react",
  "version": "4.6.0",
  "license": "MIT",
  // Dependencies listed...
}

javascript css node.js reactjs sass

Answer 1

Answer №1

I recently encountered a specific error in my project related to mixins, and I have a thorough understanding of the cause of the error, why it occurs, and how to resolve it.

The error stems from the presence of the & character in the mixin, which serves as a placeholder for the "parent selector" in SCSS – referring to the selectors that come before the current block within the curly braces.

For instance, in the example below, the parent selector is main input:

main {
    input {
        @include placeholder-color(red);
    }
}

This results in the following CSS rule:

main input::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: red;
}

If the mixin is called without any surrounding selector blocks like this:

@include placeholder-color(red);

SASS will try to generate the following erroneous CSS rule:

<parent selector>::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: red;
}

This leads to an error message stating that top-level selectors cannot contain the parent selector.

To address this issue, I crafted a solution using a Sass code snippet with an @if clause to handle cases where the & is null.

Here's a general example of how you can implement this fix:

@mixin placeholder-color ($color) {
  $s: #{if(&, '&', '')};

  #{$s}::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: $color;
  }
}

In this code snippet, note the usage of the new placeholder variable $s, the logic enclosed within #{}, and the interpolation #{$s} for including the placeholder in the selector.

Although this resolution may not be relevant to your current situation, future users, myself included, can benefit from implementing this fix moving forward.

References for further reading:

Answer 2

I recently encountered a specific error in my project related to mixins, and I have a thorough understanding of the cause of the error, why it occurs, and how to resolve it.

The error stems from the presence of the & character in the mixin, which serves as a placeholder for the "parent selector" in SCSS – referring to the selectors that come before the current block within the curly braces.

For instance, in the example below, the parent selector is main input:

main {
    input {
        @include placeholder-color(red);
    }
}

This results in the following CSS rule:

main input::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: red;
}

If the mixin is called without any surrounding selector blocks like this:

@include placeholder-color(red);

SASS will try to generate the following erroneous CSS rule:

<parent selector>::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: red;
}

This leads to an error message stating that top-level selectors cannot contain the parent selector.

To address this issue, I crafted a solution using a Sass code snippet with an @if clause to handle cases where the & is null.

Here's a general example of how you can implement this fix:

@mixin placeholder-color ($color) {
  $s: #{if(&, '&', '')};

  #{$s}::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: $color;
  }
}

In this code snippet, note the usage of the new placeholder variable $s, the logic enclosed within #{}, and the interpolation #{$s} for including the placeholder in the selector.

Although this resolution may not be relevant to your current situation, future users, myself included, can benefit from implementing this fix moving forward.

References for further reading:

Error: The parent selector "&" cannot be used in top-level selectors. $::webkit-input-placeholder

Answer №1

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