Property Use Logical

Property Use Logical is a stylelint rule to enforce the usage of Logical Properties and Values in CSS.

Physical dimensions and directions are described left to right and top to bottom, while their logical counterparts are described start to end and inline or block.

---

For example, to add spacing before the start of a paragraph, we might use the physical padding-left property.

p {
  padding-left: 2em;
}

Were the content Hebrew or Arabic — flowing right to left — then we might use alternating padding-left and padding-right properties.

p:dir(ltr) {
  padding-left: 2em;
}

p:dir(rtl) {
  padding-right: 2em;
}

Selector weight aside, we can instead use the logical padding-inline-start property.

p {
  padding-inline-start: 2em;
}

Similarly, physical horizontal and vertical dimensions are described more succinctly using their logical counterparts.

h1, h2, h3 {
  margin-top: 1em;
  margin-bottom: 1em;
}

blockquote {
  margin-left: 1em;
  margin-right: 1em;
}

/* becomes */

h1, h2, h3 {
  margin-block: 1em;
}

blockquote {
  margin-inline: 1em;
}

Usage

Add stylelint and Property Use Logical to your project.

npm install stylelint stylelint-use-logical --save-dev

Add Property Use Logical to your stylelint configuration.

{
  "plugins": [
    "stylelint-use-logical"
  ],
  "rules": {
    "csstools/use-logical": ("always" || true) || ("ignore" || false || null)
  }
}

Options

always

The "always" option (alternatively true) requires logical properties and values to be used, and the following patterns are not considered violations:

.inset {
  inset: 0;
}

.margin {
  margin-inline-start: 0;
}

.padding {
  padding-inline: 0;
}

.float {
  float: inline-start;
}

.text-align {
  text-align: start;
}

.text-align-ignored:dir(ltr) {
  text-align: left;
}

While the following patterns are considered violations:

.inset {
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
}

.margin {
  margin-left: 0;
}

.padding {
  padding-left: 0;
  padding-right: 0;
}

.float {
  float: left;
}

.text-align {
  text-align: left;
}

ignore

The "ignore" option (alternatively false or null) disables the rule.

Secondary Options

except

The except option ignores reporting or autofixing properties and values matching a case-insensitive string or regular expression.

{
  "rules": {
    "csstools/use-logical": ["always", { "except": ['float', /^margin/i] }]
  }
}

direction

The direction option controls whether left to right or right to left properties and values should be reported or autofixed.

{
  "rules": {
    "csstools/use-logical": ["always", { "direction": "ltr" || "rtl" }]
  }
}

Property and Value Mapping

Assuming left to right directionality:

Physical Property	Logical Property
top	inset-block-start
right	inset-inline-end
bottom	inset-block-end
left	inset-inline-start

Physical Property	Logical Property
margin-top	margin-block-start
margin-right	margin-inline-end
margin-bottom	margin-block-end
margin-left	margin-inline-start

Physical Property	Logical Property
padding-top	padding-block-start
padding-right	padding-inline-end
padding-bottom	padding-block-end
padding-left	padding-inline-start