Svelte 5 Snippets: Simplifying Reusability When a New Component Feels Excessive

Svelte 5 introduces Snippets, a groundbreaking feature designed to enhance code reusability. But what exactly are Snippets, and why are they so significant?

What Are Snippets?

Snippets provide a new way to make small, reusable pieces of code directly within a component. While components in Svelte 4 offered great modularity, creating separate components for minor reusable logic sometimes felt excessive, leading to unnecessary complexity. Snippets bridge this gap by enabling inline reusability, making your code cleaner and more maintainable.

Here's a scenario: imagine you're creating a small component with repetitive code. Instead of duplicating the logic or creating another full component, Snippets allow you to declare reusable chunks of markup directly within your current component.

Snippets in Action

Let's compare traditional code duplication with Snippets (example taken from Svelte's docs):

Without Snippets

{#each images as image}
	{#if image.href}
		<a href={image.href}>
			<figure>
				<img src={image.src} alt={image.caption} width={image.width} height={image.height} />
				<figcaption>{image.caption}</figcaption>
			</figure>
		</a>
	{:else}
		<figure>
			<img src={image.src} alt={image.caption} width={image.width} height={image.height} />
			<figcaption>{image.caption}</figcaption>
		</figure>
	{/if}
{/each}

With Snippets

{#snippet figure(image)}
	<figure>
		<img src={image.src} alt={image.caption} width={image.width} height={image.height} />
		<figcaption>{image.caption}</figcaption>
	</figure>
{/snippet}

{#each images as image}
	{#if image.href}
		<a href={image.href}>
			{@render figure(image)}
		</a>
	{:else}
		{@render figure(image)}
	{/if}
{/each}

By using the figure snippet, we've removed duplicate code and made the logic easier to manage.

In fact, Snippets offer much more versatility—you can export them, pass them to components, and even add TypeScript types to them, which I highly recommend for better code safety and clarity.

If you're one of those wondering, “Why do we need Svelte 5?”, I highly recommend reviewing your code and trying Snippets to address redundant frontend logic—you might be surprised by the improvement.