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Stack

Stack is a container component for arranging elements vertically or horizontally.

Introduction

The Stack component manages the layout of its immediate children along the vertical or horizontal axis, with optional spacing and dividers between each child.

Basics

import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';

The Stack component acts as a generic container, wrapping around the elements to be arranged.

Use the spacing prop to control the space between children. The spacing value can be any number, including decimals, or a string. (The prop is converted into a CSS property using the theme.spacing() helper.)

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import Box from '@mui/material/Box';
import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';

const Item = styled(Paper)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: '#fff',
  ...theme.typography.body2,
  padding: theme.spacing(1),
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: (theme.vars ?? theme).palette.text.secondary,
  ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
    backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
  }),
}));

export default function BasicStack() {
  return (
    <Box sx={{ width: '100%' }}>
      <Stack spacing={2}>
        <Item>Item 1</Item>
        <Item>Item 2</Item>
        <Item>Item 3</Item>
      </Stack>
    </Box>
  );
}

Stack vs. Grid

Stack is concerned with one-dimensional layouts, while Grid handles two-dimensional layouts. The default direction is column which stacks children vertically.

Direction

By default, Stack arranges items vertically in a column. Use the direction prop to position items horizontally in a row:

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import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';

const Item = styled(Paper)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: '#fff',
  ...theme.typography.body2,
  padding: theme.spacing(1),
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: (theme.vars ?? theme).palette.text.secondary,
  ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
    backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
  }),
}));

export default function DirectionStack() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Stack direction="row" spacing={2}>
        <Item>Item 1</Item>
        <Item>Item 2</Item>
        <Item>Item 3</Item>
      </Stack>
    </div>
  );
}

Dividers

Use the divider prop to insert an element between each child. This works particularly well with the Divider component, as shown below:

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import Divider from '@mui/material/Divider';
import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';

const Item = styled(Paper)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: '#fff',
  ...theme.typography.body2,
  padding: theme.spacing(1),
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: (theme.vars ?? theme).palette.text.secondary,
  ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
    backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
  }),
}));

export default function DividerStack() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Stack
        direction="row"
        divider={<Divider orientation="vertical" flexItem />}
        spacing={2}
      >
        <Item>Item 1</Item>
        <Item>Item 2</Item>
        <Item>Item 3</Item>
      </Stack>
    </div>
  );
}

Responsive values

You can switch the direction or spacing values based on the active breakpoint.

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import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';

const Item = styled(Paper)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: '#fff',
  ...theme.typography.body2,
  padding: theme.spacing(1),
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: (theme.vars ?? theme).palette.text.secondary,
  ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
    backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
  }),
}));

export default function ResponsiveStack() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Stack
        direction={{ xs: 'column', sm: 'row' }}
        spacing={{ xs: 1, sm: 2, md: 4 }}
      >
        <Item>Item 1</Item>
        <Item>Item 2</Item>
        <Item>Item 3</Item>
      </Stack>
    </div>
  );
}

Flexbox gap

To use flexbox gap for the spacing implementation, set the useFlexGap prop to true.

It removes the known limitations of the default implementation that uses CSS nested selector. However, CSS flexbox gap is not fully supported in some browsers.

We recommend checking the support percentage before using it.

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import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import Box from '@mui/material/Box';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';

const Item = styled(Paper)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: '#fff',
  ...theme.typography.body2,
  padding: theme.spacing(1),
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: (theme.vars ?? theme).palette.text.secondary,
  flexGrow: 1,
  ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
    backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
  }),
}));

export default function FlexboxGapStack() {
  return (
    <Box sx={{ width: 200 }}>
      <Stack
        spacing={{ xs: 1, sm: 2 }}
        direction="row"
        useFlexGap
        sx={{ flexWrap: 'wrap' }}
      >
        <Item>Item 1</Item>
        <Item>Item 2</Item>
        <Item>Long content</Item>
      </Stack>
    </Box>
  );
}

To set the prop to all stack instances, create a theme with default props:

import { ThemeProvider, createTheme } from '@mui/material/styles';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';

const theme = createTheme({
  components: {
    MuiStack: {
      defaultProps: {
        useFlexGap: true,
      },
    },
  },
});

function App() {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
      <Stack>…</Stack> {/* uses flexbox gap by default */}
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
}

Interactive demo

Below is an interactive demo that lets you explore the visual results of the different settings:

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direction
alignItems
justifyContent
spacing
<Stack
  direction="row"
  spacing={2}
  sx={{
    justifyContent: "center",
    alignItems: "center",
  }}
>
import * as React from 'react';
import FormControl from '@mui/material/FormControl';
import FormLabel from '@mui/material/FormLabel';
import FormControlLabel from '@mui/material/FormControlLabel';
import Grid from '@mui/material/Grid';
import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import RadioGroup from '@mui/material/RadioGroup';
import Radio from '@mui/material/Radio';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import type { StackProps } from '@mui/material/Stack';
import { HighlightedCode } from '@mui/internal-core-docs/HighlightedCode';

export default function InteractiveStack() {
  const [direction, setDirection] = React.useState<StackProps['direction']>('row');
  const [justifyContent, setJustifyContent] = React.useState('center');
  const [alignItems, setAlignItems] = React.useState('center');
  const [spacing, setSpacing] = React.useState(2);

  const jsx = `
<Stack
  direction="${direction}"
  spacing={${spacing}}
  sx={{
    justifyContent: "${justifyContent}",
    alignItems: "${alignItems}",
  }}
>
`;

  return (
    <Stack sx={{ flexGrow: 1 }}>
      <Stack
        direction={direction}
        spacing={spacing}
        sx={{ justifyContent, alignItems, height: 240 }}
      >
        {[0, 1, 2].map((value) => (
          <Paper
            key={value}
            sx={(theme) => ({
              p: 2,
              pt: value + 1,
              pb: value + 1,
              color: 'text.secondary',
              typography: 'body2',
              backgroundColor: '#fff',
              ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
                backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
              }),
            })}
          >
            {`Item ${value + 1}`}
          </Paper>
        ))}
      </Stack>
      <Paper sx={{ p: 2 }}>
        <Grid container spacing={3}>
          <Grid size={12}>
            <FormControl component="fieldset">
              <FormLabel component="legend">direction</FormLabel>
              <RadioGroup
                row
                name="direction"
                aria-label="direction"
                value={direction}
                onChange={(event) => {
                  setDirection(event.target.value as StackProps['direction']);
                }}
              >
                <FormControlLabel value="row" control={<Radio />} label="row" />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="row-reverse"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="row-reverse"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="column"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="column"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="column-reverse"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="column-reverse"
                />
              </RadioGroup>
            </FormControl>
          </Grid>
          <Grid size={12}>
            <FormControl component="fieldset">
              <FormLabel component="legend">alignItems</FormLabel>
              <RadioGroup
                row
                name="alignItems"
                aria-label="align items"
                value={alignItems}
                onChange={(event) => {
                  setAlignItems(event.target.value);
                }}
              >
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="flex-start"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="flex-start"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="center"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="center"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="flex-end"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="flex-end"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="stretch"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="stretch"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="baseline"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="baseline"
                />
              </RadioGroup>
            </FormControl>
          </Grid>
          <Grid size={12}>
            <FormControl component="fieldset">
              <FormLabel component="legend">justifyContent</FormLabel>
              <RadioGroup
                row
                name="justifyContent"
                aria-label="justifyContent"
                value={justifyContent}
                onChange={(event) => {
                  setJustifyContent(event.target.value);
                }}
              >
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="flex-start"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="flex-start"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="center"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="center"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="flex-end"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="flex-end"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="space-between"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="space-between"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="space-around"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="space-around"
                />
                <FormControlLabel
                  value="space-evenly"
                  control={<Radio />}
                  label="space-evenly"
                />
              </RadioGroup>
            </FormControl>
          </Grid>
          <Grid size={12}>
            <FormControl component="fieldset">
              <FormLabel component="legend">spacing</FormLabel>
              <RadioGroup
                row
                name="spacing"
                aria-label="spacing"
                value={spacing.toString()}
                onChange={(event: React.ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>) => {
                  setSpacing(Number((event.target as HTMLInputElement).value));
                }}
              >
                {[0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12].map((value) => (
                  <FormControlLabel
                    key={value}
                    value={value.toString()}
                    control={<Radio />}
                    label={value}
                  />
                ))}
              </RadioGroup>
            </FormControl>
          </Grid>
        </Grid>
      </Paper>
      <HighlightedCode code={jsx} language="jsx" />
    </Stack>
  );
}

Customization

Use the sx prop to quickly customize any Stack instance using a superset of CSS that has access to all the style functions and theme-aware properties exposed in the MUI System package. Below is an example of how to apply center align items using this prop:

<Stack sx={{ alignItems: 'center' }} />

Limitations

Margin on the children

Customizing the margin on the children is not supported by default.

For instance, the top-margin on the Button component below will be ignored.

<Stack>
  <Button sx={{ marginTop: '30px' }}>...</Button>
</Stack>

white-space: nowrap

The initial setting on flex items is min-width: auto. This causes a positioning conflict when children use white-space: nowrap;. You can reproduce the issue with:

<Stack direction="row">
  <Typography noWrap>

In order for the item to stay within the container you need to set min-width: 0.

<Stack direction="row" sx={{ minWidth: 0 }}>
  <Typography noWrap>
W

Truncation should be conditionally applicable on this long line of text as this is a much longer line than what the container can support.

W

Truncation should be conditionally applicable on this long line of text as this is a much longer line than what the container can support.

import Avatar from '@mui/material/Avatar';
import Box from '@mui/material/Box';
import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';
import Stack from '@mui/material/Stack';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';
import Typography from '@mui/material/Typography';

const Item = styled(Paper)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: '#fff',
  ...theme.typography.body2,
  padding: theme.spacing(1),
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: (theme.vars ?? theme).palette.text.secondary,
  maxWidth: 400,
  ...theme.applyStyles('dark', {
    backgroundColor: '#1A2027',
  }),
}));

const message = `Truncation should be conditionally applicable on this long line of text
 as this is a much longer line than what the container can support.`;

export default function ZeroWidthStack() {
  return (
    <Box sx={{ flexGrow: 1, overflow: 'hidden', px: 3 }}>
      <Item sx={{ my: 1, mx: 'auto', p: 2 }}>
        <Stack spacing={2} direction="row" sx={{ alignItems: 'center' }}>
          <Avatar>W</Avatar>
          <Typography noWrap>{message}</Typography>
        </Stack>
      </Item>
      <Item sx={{ my: 1, mx: 'auto', p: 2 }}>
        <Stack spacing={2} direction="row" sx={{ alignItems: 'center' }}>
          <Stack>
            <Avatar>W</Avatar>
          </Stack>
          <Stack sx={{ minWidth: 0 }}>
            <Typography noWrap>{message}</Typography>
          </Stack>
        </Stack>
      </Item>
    </Box>
  );
}

Anatomy

The Stack component is composed of a single root <div> element:

<div class="MuiStack-root">
  <!-- Stack contents -->
</div>

API

See the documentation below for a complete reference to all of the props and classes available to the components mentioned here.