Less CSS Mixin for positioning with options for corresponding top, left, right, bottom values

Question

I've created a Mixin in Less CSS. It can do the following things:

• Set the position-rule of an element.
• Place the element in one of the corners (e.g. top left, bottom right etc.)
• Alternatively it can set explicit values for top|right|bottom|left.

Usage example:

.test-1 {
    .position(absolute, top, right);
}

Examples showing the resulting CSS:

.position() { position: static; }
.position(relative) { position: relative; }
.position(absolute, top, right) { position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: auto; left: auto; right: 0; }
.position(absolute, bottom, left) { position: absolute; top: auto; bottom: 0; left: 0; right: auto; }
.position(fixed, 20px, 50%) { position: fixed; top: 20px; right: 50%; }
.position(fixed, 10px, null, null, 10%) { fixed: absolute; top: 10px; left: 10%; }
.position(absolute, 10px, -, -, 10%) { position: absolute; top: 10px; left: 10%; }

The Mixin:

.position(@position: static; @a: null; @b: null; @c: null; @d: null) {
    position: @position;

    & when (top = @a) {
        top: 0;
        bottom: auto;
    }

    & when (bottom = @a) {
        top: auto;
        bottom: 0;
    }

    & when (left = @b) {
        left: 0;
        right: auto;
    }

    & when (right = @b) {
        left: auto;
        right: 0;
    }

    & when not (null = @a) and not (~'-' = @a) and not (top = @a) and not (bottom = @a) {
        top: @a;
    }

    & when not (null = @b) and not (~'-' = @b) and not (top = @b) and not (bottom = @b) {
        right: @b;
    }

    & when not (null = @c) and not (~'-' = @c) {
        bottom: @c;
    }

    & when not (null = @d) and not (~'-' = @d) {
        left: @d;
    }
}

I've also created a shortahand version .p(), which can be called instead of .position():

.p(@position: static; @a: null; @b: null; @c: null; @d: null) {
    .position(@position; @a; @b; @c; @d);
}

My questions are:

• Is this a useful Mixin?
• Or is it a bad practie to create Mixins like this?
• Is it too complicated or too hard to understand?
• Can this be optimized or shortend?

---

Even though most of the time I need to use top and left for positioning, I found it more related to other CSS rules like margin when the values are sorted clockwise like top|right|bottom|left.

Answer 1

Is this a useful Mixin? Depends on if you need it a lot.

Or is it a bad practice to create Mixins like this? Nothing is bad practice if it helps you float your boat.

Is it too complicated or too hard to understand? Not really, but seems like you'll often have to lookup the generated CSS to fix positioning problems. F.e. I'm not a big fan of 10px, null, null, 10%, I know it's NESW, but still... Wouldn't it be better to have .position(fixed, top 10px, left 10%) if that is possible?

Can this be optimized or shortened? Probably yes, but why do premature optimization if the use-case is unknown?