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How to move around blocks of code with React and Tailwind

While working on a Next.js website I had the need to move a React component to a whole different place in my markup, depending on the size of the screen.

In particular I had a Sidebar component I wanted on the left side of the screen on a big display, but before the content on a smaller display.

Due to the way I organized the HTML markup and the CSS, it was not immediately clear to me how to perform this transition without rewriting a good portion of it.

So I looked at Tailwind to provide me a nice solution.

And this was the way: I added the component twice on the screen, assigning the class hidden xl:block to the “big screen” part, and xl:hidden to the snippet for the smaller screens:

<div className="hidden xl:block">
  <Sidebar />
</div>

...

<div className="xl:hidden">
  <Sidebar />
</div>

The drawback of course is that the component is rendered twice, but being this a simple presentational component without logic, it was a compromise I could live with.


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