How to create discrete sliders in Material UI?

Developers can easily implement sliders thanks to the Slider component provided by Material UI. In the Material UI, sliders can either be continuous or discrete. While discrete sliders limit the selection to particular, predefined values, continuous sliders let users choose any value within a given range. In this article, we are going to learn how to create discrete sliders in Material UI.

What are Discrete Sliders?

The discrete slider allows the user only to select the value in a particular range as compared to the other sliders. To use the discrete sliders in React, we can adjust the slider to a specific value by referencing its value indicator. To perform this, we can create a mark for each step with a prop called ‘marks’ and assign its value to true.

API Used

• <Slider> − This API is used to create the slider component, allowing the users to make selections in a different range of items in React MUI

Props

• aria-label − This prop is used to add the slider label.

• aria-labelledby − This prop is used to add id of the element having slider label.

• aria-valuetext − This prop is used to add a name to the value of the slider.

• classes − This prop is used to override or add styles to component.

• color − This prop is used to add different colors to slider component.

• components − This prop is used to add components for each slider slot.

• componentsProps − This prop is used to add props for slot components.

• defaultValue − This prop is used to add defaut value.

• disabled − This prop is used to disable the slider component.

• disableSwap − This prop allows you to not swap the slider when moving pointer over a thumb while dragging another thumb.

• getAriaLabel − This prop is used to add a function returning the name of the slider label.

• getAriaValueText − This prop is used to add a function returning the current value of the slider label.

• marks − This prop is used to add predetermined value to the slider.

• max − This prop is used to add the max value to a slider.

• min − This prop is used to add the min value to a slider.

• name − This prop is used to add the name of hidden input.

• onChange − This prop is used to add a callback function when slider value is triggered.

• orientation − This prop is used to change slider component orientation.

• size − This prop is used to change the size of the slider.

• slotProps − This prop is used to add different props inside the slider.

• slots − This prop is used to add componen inside the slider.

• step − This prop is used to add the steps in the sliders.

• sx − This prop is used to add styles in Material UI.

• track − This prop is used to add different tracks to a slider.

• value − This prop is used to add a value to the slider.

• valueLabelDisplay − This prop is used to control the displayed value of label.

Steps to Create Discrete Sliders

Below are the steps for creating discrete sliders in Material UI with their respective syntaxes −

Step 1: Create a React Application

Before we move further to create sliders, we must have a React application. To create a new React app, run the below commands in your terminal −

npx create react app sliderproject

Once the project is created, navigate to its directory by running −

cd sliderproject

Step 2: Install the Material UI

Once you have created the react app, it's time to install the Material UI into the react application. To install MUI, run the following command −

npm install @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styled

Step 3: Import and Define the Slider

Now, let’s import and define the slider component in the main App component.

import React from "react";
import Slider from "@mui/material/Slider"

const App = () => {
   return (
      <div>
         <Slider 
            defaultValue={30}
            step={10}
            marks
            min={10}
            max={110} 
         />
      </div>
   );
};
export default App;

Step 4: Run the Project

To run the react MUI application, run the below command in the terminal −

npm run start

That’s all about the creation of discrete sliders. Now, let’s see some examples of different approaches.

Example

In this example, we have created a discrete slider with small steps involved. When the user slides over the slider, the user can use the small steps to select any value on the slider.

import React from "react";
import Slider from "@mui/material/Slider"

const App = () => {
   function valuetext(val) {
      return `${val}`;
   }

   return (
      <div style={{padding: 40,width: '50%'}}>
         <Slider
            aria-label="Small steps"
            defaultValue={0.0004}
            getAriaValueText={valuetext}
            step={0.0004}
            marks
            min={0.0005}
            max={0.01}
            valueLabelDisplay="auto"
         />
      </div>
   );
};
export default App;

Output

Example

In this example, we have created a discrete slider with custom marks. To create the custom marks, we first created an array of data having value and a label, and then passed the array to the ‘marks’ prop so that when the user slides over the slider, the user can use the custom steps to select any value on the slider.

import React from "react";
import Slider from "@mui/material/Slider"

const customMarks = [
   {
      value: 10,
      label: '10 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 25,
      label: '25 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 36,
      label: '36 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 48,
      label: '48 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 65,
      label: '65 Marks',
   },
];

const App = () => {

   function valuetext(val) {
      return `${val}`;
   }

   return (
      <div style={{padding: 40,width: '50%'}}>
         <Slider
            aria-label="custom marks"
            defaultValue={48}
            getAriaValueText={valuetext}
            step={10}
            marks={customMarks}
            valueLabelDisplay="on"
         />
      </div>
   );
};

export default App;

Output

Example

In this example, we have created a discrete slider with restricted values. To restrict the user from selecting a specific value, use the step prop and pass the value as null. Now, when the user slides over the slider, the user cannot select any specific value on the slider except for the values defined to be used.

import React from "react";
import Slider from "@mui/material/Slider"

const customMarks = [
   {
      value: 10,
      label: '10 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 25,
      label: '25 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 36,
      label: '36 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 48,
      label: '48 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 65,
      label: '65 Marks',
   },
];

const App = () => {
   function valuetext(val) {
      return `${val}`;
   }

   return (
      <div style={{padding: 40,width: '50%'}}>
         <Slider
            aria-label="custom marks"
            defaultValue={48}
            getAriaValueText={valuetext}
            step={null}
            marks={customMarks}
            valueLabelDisplay="on"
         />
      </div>
   );
};

export default App;

Output

Example

In this example, we have created a discrete slider with always visible values.

import React from "react";
import Slider from "@mui/material/Slider"

const customMarks = [
   {
      value: 10,
      label: '10 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 25,
      label: '25 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 36,
      label: '36 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 48,
      label: '48 Marks',
   },
   {
      value: 65,
      label: '65 Marks',
   },
];

const App = () => {

   function valuetext(val) {
      return `${val}`;
   }

   return (
      <div style={{padding: 40,width: '50%'}}>
         <Slider
            aria-label="custom marks"
            defaultValue={48}
            getAriaValueText={valuetext}
            step={15}
            marks={customMarks}
            valueLabelDisplay="on"
         />
      </div>
   );
};

export default App;

Output

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how we can create discrete sliders using MUI in React. To have a complete understanding of the discrete sliders, we have learned the complete steps along with different examples and their outputs.