first off - Happy Friday!
I just came on here to see if anyone had any input to an issue that I am seeing in my ReactJs application. So I have a functional component renderViews and in that functional component, there are multiple views to render. Then within the renderViews I have another functional component carDetailsView and I try to make a call to an api when that particular component appears(as a modal). requestCarsDetails() should only be called when that component appears so thats why I nested a useEffect hook in the carDetailsView. But that causes an issue:
Rendered more hooks than during the previous render
.Please see code below:
const renderViews = () = > {
useEffect(()=> {
requestCarInfos()
.then((res) => {
setCars(cars);
});
}, []);
const carDetailsView = () => {
useEffect(() => {
requestCarDetails()
.then((res) => {
setDetails(res.details);
});
}, []);
return (<div>carDetailsView</div>)
}
return (<div>{determineView()}</div>)
}
The useEffect that is being used at the top level works fine. The issue only appeared after I added the second useEffect which is in the carDetailsView. Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Its a rule of hooks.
https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-rules.html
Only Call Hooks at the Top Level
Don’t call Hooks inside loops, conditions, or nested functions. Instead, always use Hooks at the top level of your React function, before any early returns. By following this rule, you ensure that Hooks are called in the same order each time a component renders. That’s what allows React to correctly preserve the state of Hooks between multiple useState and useEffect calls.
React relies on the order in which Hooks are called.
As long as the order of the Hook calls is the same between renders, React can associate some local state with each of them.
if we put a Hook call inside a condition we can skip the Hook during rendering, the order of the Hook calls becomes different:
React wouldn’t know what to return for the second useState Hook call. React expected that the second Hook call in this component corresponds to the persistForm effect, just like during the previous render, but it doesn’t anymore. From that point, every next Hook call after the one we skipped would also shift by one, leading to bugs.
This is why Hooks must be called on the top level of our components. If we want to run an effect conditionally, we can put that condition inside our Hook:
use the lint https://www.npmjs.com/package/eslint-plugin-react-hooks
this is a caveat of using functional components, on each render everything inside the functional component gets kind of executed. so react needs to maintain the list of all hooks which have been defined when the component was created. think of it as an array.
on each render, useState will return the value for you. if you understand this, you will understand what stale state also means. ( stale state can happen, when closures occur within these components )
Something like that?
const CarDetailsView = () => {
React.useEffect(() => {
console.log("Running CarDetailsView useEffect...") ;
},[]);
return(
<div>I amCarDetailsView</div>
);
};
const Views = () => {
const [showCarDetails,setShowCarDetails] = React.useState(false);
const toggleCarDetails = () => setShowCarDetails(!showCarDetails);
React.useEffect(() => {
console.log("Running Views useEffect...") ;
},[]);
return(
<div>
<div>I am Views</div>
<button onClick={toggleCarDetails}>Toggle car details</button>
{showCarDetails && <CarDetailsView/>}
</div>
);
};
const App = () => {
return(<Views/>);
};
ReactDOM.render(<App/>,document.getElementById("root"));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/17.0.0/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/17.0.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<div id="root"/>
I have started learning React and developing an application using ReactJS. Recently i have moved to React Hooks. I know that in Class Component we can get the latest data from the state with the 2nd argument which is present in setState() like
state = {name: ''};
this.setState({name: name}, () => {console.log(this.state)});
I wanted to know if there is any arguments in React Hooks with which we can get the latest data from it.
I am using React Hooks in the below mentioned way, but upon console logging it always return the previous state
Hooks Eg:
const [socialData, setSocialData] = useState([
{ id: new Date().getTime().toString(), ...newItem }
]);
const onChangeCallback = (index, type, data) => {
let newSocialData = [...socialData];
newSocialData[index] = { ...newSocialData[index], [type]: data };
setSocialData(newSocialData);
onInputChange(newSocialData, formKey);
console.log(newSocialData);
};
The this.setState() second argument is not exactly to get the latest data from the state, but to run some code after the state has been effectively changed.
Remember that setting the state is an asynchronous operation. It is because React needs to wait for other potential state change requests so it can optimize changes and perform them in a single DOM update.
With this.setState() you can pass a function as the first argument, which will receive the latest known state value and should return the new state value.
this.setState((previousState) => {
const newState = previousState + 1;
return newState;
}, () => {
console.log('State has been updated!')
});
With that being said, there are special and rare cases when you need to know exactly when the state change has taken place. In many years of working with React I only faced this scenario once and I consider it a desperate attempt to make things work.
Usually, during a callback execution, like your onChangeCallback you want to change the state as the last thing your function does. If you already know the new state value, why do you want to wait for the real state to change to use it?
The new state value should be a problem to be handled during the next render.
If you want to run some code only when that particular state value changes you can do something like this:
import React, {useState, useEffect, useCallback} from 'react';
function MyComponent() {
const [value, setValue] = useState(false);
const onChangeHandler = useCallback((e) => {
setValue(!!e.target.checked);
}, []);
useEffect(() => {
// THIS WILL RUN ONLY WHEN value CHANGES. VERY SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO WITH THE this.setState SECOND ARGUMENT.
}, [value]);
return (
<input type='checkbox' onChange={onChangeHandler} />
);
}
There is also a way to create a custom useState hook, to allow you passing a second argument to setValue and mimic the behavior of this.setState, but internally it would do exactly what I did in the above component. Please let me know if you have any doubt.
I'm writing a custom hook that takes an id as input and then should do the following tasks:
get data for that id synchronously from a store
subscribe to changes in this store and update data accordingly
I came up with the following implementation which has the downside that I am setting state directly from inside the effect hook, causing a second render.
function useData({id}) {
// set initial data on first render
const [data, setData] = useState(Store.getData(id));
useEffect(() => {
// when id changes, set data to whatever is in store at the moment
// here we call setData directly from inside useEffect, causing a second render
setData(Store.getData(id));
// subscribe to changes to update data whenever it changes in the store
return Store.onChange(id, setData);
}, [id]);
return data;
}
A second approach I tried was to add a dummy state that is only there to cause a re-render. In this approach I am directly returning the data received from Store.getData(). This ensures that I will get the freshest data with every render and the useEffect ensures that every onChange trigger will cause a new render.
function useData({id}) {
// adding some dummy state that we only use to force a render
const [, setDummy] = useState({});
const refresh = useCallback(() => {
setDummy({});
}, []);
useEffect(() => {
// subscribe to changes cause a refresh on every change
return Store.onChange(id, refresh);
}, [id, refresh]);
return Store.getData[id];
}
The second approach works well but it feels weird to add this dummy state. Sure, I could put this into another useRefresh hook but I am not sure if this would really be a good practice.
Is there any better way of implementing this, without calling setData directly from inside useEffect and without relying on some unused dummy state?
So by now you use useState inside your hook just to re-trigger rendering of host component once store is changed. How about taking change handler from the outside?
function useData(id, onChanged) {
useEffect(() => {
return store.onChange(id, onChanged);
}, [id, onChanged]);
return store.getData(id);
}
The method componentWillUnmount() is invoked immediately before a component is unmounted and destroyed. If we use useEffect with an empty array ([]) as the second argument and put our function in return statement it will be executed after the component is unmounted and even after another component will be mounted. This is done for performance reasons as far as I understand. In order not to delay rendering.
So the question is - how can we call some function using hooks before a component gets unmounted?
What I am trying to do is an application which saves user's input as he types (without submitting form). I use setInterval to save updated text every N seconds. And I need to force save updates before the component will unmount. I don't want to use prompt by react router before navigating. This is an electron application. I appreciate any thoughts or advice on how to implement such functionality.
Update
Unfortunately, Effects with Cleanup run after letting the browser paint. More details can be found here: So What About Cleanup?. It basically means that cleanup is run after a component is unmounted and it is not the same as executing code in componentWillUnmount(). I can clearly see the sequence of calls if I put console.log statements in the cleanup code and in another component. The question is whether we can execute some code before a component is unmounted using hooks.
Update2
As I can see I should better describe my use case. Let's imagine a theoretical app which holds its data in a Redux store. And we have two components with some forms. For simplicity, we don't have any backend or any async logic. We use only Redux store as data storage.
We don't want to update Redux store on every keystroke. So we keep actual values in the local component's state which we initialize with values from the store when a component mounts. We also create an effect which sets up a setInterval for 1s.
We have the following process. A User types something. Updates are stored in the local component state until our setInterval callback is called. The callback just puts data in the store (dispatches action). We put our callback in the useEffect return statement to force save to store when the component gets unmounted because we want to save data to store in this case as soon as possible.
The problem comes when a user types something in the first component and immediately goes to the second component (faster than 1s). Since the cleanup in our first component will be called after re-rendering, our store won't be updated before the second component gets mounted. And because of that, the second component will get outdated values to its local state.
If we put our callback in componentWillUnmount() it will be called before unmounting and the store will be updated before the next component mounts. So can we implement this using hooks?
componentWillUnmount can be simulated by returning a function inside the useEffect hook. The returned function will be called just before every rerendering of the component. Strictly speaking, this is the same thing but you should be able to simulate any behaviour you want using this.
useEffect(() => {
const unsubscribe = api.createSubscription()
return () => unsubscribe()
})
Update
The above will run every time there is a rerender. However, to simulate the behaviour only on mounting and unmounting (i.e. componentDidMount and componentWillUnmount). useEffect takes a second argument which needs to be an empty array.
useEffect(() => {
const unsubscribe = api.createSubscription()
return () => unsubscribe()
}, [])
See a more detailed explanation of the same question here.
Since the introduction of the useLayoutEffect hook, you can now do
useLayoutEffect(() => () => {
// Your code here.
}, [])
to simulate componentWillUnmount. This runs during unmount, but before the element has actually left the page.
The question here is how do you run code with hooks BEFORE unmount? The return function with hooks runs AFTER unmount and whilst that doesn’t make a difference for most use cases, their are some where it is a critical difference.
Having done a bit of investigation on this, I have come to the conclusion that currently hooks simply does not provide a direct alternative to componentWillUnmount. So if you have a use case that needs it, which is mainly for me at least, the integration of non-React libs, you just have to do it the old way and use a component.
Update: see the answer below about UseLayoutEffect() which looks like it may solve this issue.
I agree with Frank, but the code needs to look like this otherwise it will run only on the first render:
useLayoutEffect(() => {
return () => {
// Your code here.
}
}, [])
This is equivalent to ComponentWillUnmount
Similar to #pritam's answer, but with an abstracted code example. The whole idea of useRef is to allow you to keep track of the changes to the callback and not have a stale closure at the time of execution. Hence, the useEffect at the bottom can have an empty dependency array to ensure it only runs when the component unmounts. See the code demo.
Reusable hook:
type Noop = () => void;
const useComponentWillUnmount = (callback: Noop) => {
const mem = useRef<Noop>();
useEffect(() => {
mem.current = callback;
}, [callback]);
useEffect(() => {
return () => {
const func = mem.current as Noop;
func();
};
}, []);
};
After a bit of research, found that - you could still accomplish this. Bit tricky but should work.
You can make use of useRef and store the props to be used within a closure such as render useEffect return callback method
function Home(props) {
const val = React.useRef();
React.useEffect(
() => {
val.current = props;
},
[props]
);
React.useEffect(() => {
return () => {
console.log(props, val.current);
};
}, []);
return <div>Home</div>;
}
DEMO
However a better way is to pass on the second argument to useEffect so that the cleanup and initialisation happens on any change of desired props
React.useEffect(() => {
return () => {
console.log(props.current);
};
}, [props.current]);
I got in a unique situation where the useEffect(() => () => { ... }, []); answers did not work for me. This is because my component never got rendered — I was throwing an exception before I could register the useEffect hook.
function Component() {
useEffect(() => () => { console.log("Cleanup!"); }, []);
if (promise) throw promise;
if (error) throw error;
return <h1>Got value: {value}</h1>;
}
In the above example, by throwing a Promise<T> that tells react to suspend until the promise is resolved. However, once the promise is resolved, an error is thrown. Since the component never gets rendered and goes straight to an ErrorBoundary, the useEffect() hook is never registered!
If you're in a similar situation as myself, this little code may help:
To solve this, I modified my ErrorBoundary code to run a list of teardowns once it was recovered
export default class ErrorBoundary extends Component {
// ...
recover() {
runTeardowns();
// ...
}
// ...
}
Then, I created a useTeardown hook which would add teardowns that needed to be ran, or make use of useEffect if possible. You'll most likely need to modify it if you have nesting of error boundaries, but for my simple usecase, it worked wonderfully.
import React, { useEffect, useMemo } from "react";
const isDebugMode = import.meta.env.NODE_ENV === "development";
const teardowns: (() => void)[] = [];
export function runTeardowns() {
const wiped = teardowns.splice(0, teardowns.length);
for (const teardown of wiped) {
teardown();
}
}
type Teardown = { registered?: boolean; called?: boolean; pushed?: boolean } & (() => unknown);
/**
* Guarantees a function to run on teardown, even when errors occur.
*
* This is necessary because `useEffect` only runs when the component doesn't throw an error.
* If the component throws an error before anything renders, then `useEffect` won't register a
* cleanup handler to run. This hook **guarantees** that a function is called when the component ends.
*
* This works by telling `ErrorBoundary` that we have a function we would like to call on teardown.
* However, if we register a `useEffect` hook, then we don't tell `ErrorBoundary` that.
*/
export default function useTeardown(onTeardown: () => Teardown, deps: React.DependencyList) {
// We have state we need to maintain about our teardown that we need to persist
// to other layers of the application. To do that, we store state on the callback
// itself - but to do that, we need to guarantee that the callback is stable. We
// achieve this by memoizing the teardown function.
const teardown = useMemo(onTeardown, deps);
// Here, we register a `useEffect` hook to run. This will be the "happy path" for
// our teardown function, as if the component renders, we can let React guarantee
// us for the cleanup function to be ran.
useEffect(() => {
// If the effect gets called, that means we can rely on React to run our cleanup
// handler.
teardown.registered = true;
return () => {
if (isDebugMode) {
// We want to ensure that this impossible state is never reached. When the
// `runTeardowns` function is called, it should only be ran for teardowns
// that have not been able to be hook into `useEffect`.
if (teardown.called) throw new Error("teardown already called, but unregistering in useEffect");
}
teardown();
if (isDebugMode) {
// Because `teardown.registered` will already cover the case where the effect
// handler is in charge of running the teardown, this isn't necessary. However,
// this helps us prevent impossible states.
teardown.called = true;
}
};
}, deps);
// Here, we register the "sad path". If there is an exception immediately thrown,
// then the `useEffect` cleanup handler will never be ran.
//
// We rely on the behavior that our custom `ErrorBoundary` component will always
// be rendered in the event of errors. Thus, we expect that component to call
// `runTeardowns` whenever it deems it appropriate to run our teardowns.
// Because `useTeardown` will get called multiple times, we want to ensure we only
// register the teardown once.
if (!teardown.pushed) {
teardown.pushed = true;
teardowns.push(() => {
const useEffectWillCleanUpTeardown = teardown.registered;
if (!useEffectWillCleanUpTeardown) {
if (isDebugMode) {
// If the useEffect handler was already called, there should be no way to
// re-run this teardown. The only way this impossible state can be reached
// is if a teardown is called multiple times, which should not happen during
// normal execution.
const teardownAlreadyCalled = teardown.called;
if (teardownAlreadyCalled) throw new Error("teardown already called yet running it in runTeardowns");
}
teardown();
if (isDebugMode) {
// Notify that this teardown has been called - useful for ensuring that we
// cannot reach any impossible states.
teardown.called = true;
}
}
});
}
}
It does not matter wether the returned function from useEffect gets called before or after the component unmounted: You still have access to the states valuey through the closure:
const [input, setInput] = useState(() => Store.retrieveInput());
useEffect(() => {
return () => Store.storeInput(input); // < you can access "input" here, even if the component unmounted already
}, []);
If you don't manage the input in the components state, your whole structure is broken and should be changed to manage state at the right place. In your case, you should lift the shared input state of the components to the parent.
ReactJS docs on hooks specify this:
Effects may also optionally specify how to “clean up” after them by
returning a function.
So any function you return in your useEffect hook, will be executed when the component unmounts, as well as before re-running the effect due to a subsequent render.
I'm trying to understand what the use case is for using React's useCallback hook in place of the useEffect hook.
They both appear to act as a listener for state changes of their inputs (examples taken from the React Docs):
useEffect(
() => {
const subscription = props.source.subscribe();
return () => {
subscription.unsubscribe();
};
},
[props.source],
);
const memoizedCallback = useCallback(
() => {
doSomething(a, b);
},
[a, b],
);
But, the useEffect hook gives the additional benefit of cleaning up resources where you would have previously with componentWillUnmount.
So, what is a good use case for using useCallback? And, what am I missing here?
useEffect has very specific timing aspects related to it that you can read about here. The function specified will be executed after rendering is complete and the DOM has been updated. This will happen after each rendering where any of the values specified in the second-argument array change.
useCallback doesn't automatically execute anything. It returns a function that can be executed by whatever code needs to trigger it. There is no listening to changes that causes an execution of the callback. The array values just control what instance of the function is returned. The array values do not control the timing of the function execution.
A key use case is to pass this function as a prop to a child component to use as an event handler. useCallback allows you to define an inline function to use as an event handler (thus it has access to any other variables in the context where the function is defined) without the downside of passing a unique prop to the child every render. So long as the values in the second-argument array have not changed, the same function will be returned as was returned the previous rendering. So if the child component is a pure component, it will not be forced to re-render simply because of always receiving a unique event handler function.
without useCallback
const Parent = ()=> {
const [a, setA] = useState(null);
const eventHandler = ()=> {
// every render creates a unique instance of eventHandler
// even though it always does the same thing so long as 'a' hasn't changed
doSomethingWithA(a);
}
return <Child onClick={eventHandler}/>
}
with useCallback
const Parent = ()=> {
const [a, setA] = useState(null);
const eventHandler = useCallback(()=> {
// A unique function instance is passed in to useCallback on every render, but
// eventHandler will be set to the first instance of this function
// (i.e. potentially an instance of the function that was passed to useCallback
// on a previous rendering) that was passed to useCallback
// for the current value of 'a'.
doSomethingWithA(a);
}, [a]);
return <Child onClick={eventHandler}/>
}
This article provides a bit more detail than the React docs on the use case for useCallback and other hooks.
Related answer: Trouble with simple example of React Hooks useCallback