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šŸ” Implement Search & Category Filtering in React with TailwindCSS (2025 Guide)

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šŸ” Implement Search & Category Filtering in React with TailwindCSS (2025 Guide)

In this guide, you’ll learn how to implement powerful search and category filtering in a React application using TailwindCSS for styling. This builds on a previous project where we created a responsive recipe website.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to:

* Filter recipe cards by text input

* Filter by category dropdown

* Clear search with a single click

* Ensure case-insensitive matching

āœ… Prerequisites

* A React app already set up (ideally with TailwindCSS + recipe data)

* Basic understanding of React state and hooks

🧱 Step 1: Create State for Search and Category

Inside your RecipesPage.jsx (or App.jsx if everything is in one file):

const [searchQuery, setSearchQuery] = useState(""); const [category, setCategory] = useState(""); const [filteredRecipes, setFilteredRecipes] = useState(recipes);

šŸŽØ Step 2: Create the UI

šŸ” Search + Filter Inputs

Featured Recipes

setSearchQuery(e.target.value)} className="w-full md:w-1/2 px-4 py-2 border border-gray-300 rounded focus:outline-none focus:ring-2 focus:ring-amber-500" /> setCategory(e.target.value)} className="w-full md:w-1/4 px-4 py-2 border border-gray-300 rounded focus:outline-none focus:ring-2 focus:ring-amber-500" > All Categories {[...new Set(recipes.map(recipe => recipe.category))].map((cat, i) => ( {cat} ))} { setSearchQuery(""); setCategory(""); }} className="cursor-pointer bg-gradient-to-r from-amber-500 to-orange-500 hover:from-orange-500 hover:to-amber-500 text-white px-6 py-2 rounded transition duration-300" > Clear Search

āš™ļø Step 3: Search Logic with useEffect

useEffect(() => { const query = searchQuery.toLowerCase(); const result = recipes.filter(recipe => recipe.title.toLowerCase().includes(query) || recipe.ingredients.some(ing => ing.toLowerCase().includes(query)) || recipe.category.toLowerCase().includes(query) ); if (category) { setFilteredRecipes(result.filter(recipe => recipe.category === category)); } else { setFilteredRecipes(result); } }, [searchQuery, category]);

This runs every time the search query or category changes.

šŸ“¦ Step 4: Display Filtered Recipes

{filteredRecipes.length > 0 ? ( filteredRecipes.map((recipe, i) => ( )) ) : (

No recipes found.

)}

🧠 Bonus: Tips

* Use toLowerCase() to make searching case-insensitive

* Use Set to generate unique categories

* Add debounce if your search data is large

* For UX, make the clear button instantly reset filters

šŸ“ˆ SEO Keywords

* React search filter tutorial 2025

* Tailwind CSS form input search

* Recipe search filter React example

* Case-insensitive search with useEffect

* Responsive dropdown in React + TailwindCSS



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