I've been playing around with the new hook system in React 16.7-alpha and get stuck in an infinite loop in useEffect when the state I'm handling is an object or array.
First, I use useState and initiate it with an empty object like this:
const [obj, setObj] = useState({});
Then, in useEffect, I use setObj to set it to an empty object again. As a second argument I'm passing [obj], hoping that it wont update if the content of the object hasn't changed. But it keeps updating. I guess because no matter the content, these are always different objects making React thinking it keep changing?
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, [ingredients]);
The same is true with arrays, but as a primitive it wont get stuck in a loop, as expected.
Using these new hooks, how should I handle objects and array when checking weather the content has changed or not?
Passing an empty array as the second argument to useEffect makes it only run on mount and unmount, thus stopping any infinite loops.
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, []);
This was clarified to me in the blog post on React hooks at https://www.robinwieruch.de/react-hooks/
Had the same problem. I don't know why they not mention this in docs. Just want to add a little to Tobias Haugen answer.
To run in every component/parent rerender you need to use:
useEffect(() => {
// don't know where it can be used :/
})
To run anything only one time after component mount(will be rendered once) you need to use:
useEffect(() => {
// do anything only one time if you pass empty array []
// keep in mind, that component will be rendered one time (with default values) before we get here
}, [] )
To run anything one time on component mount and on data/data2 change:
const [data, setData] = useState(false)
const [data2, setData2] = useState('default value for first render')
useEffect(() => {
// if you pass some variable, than component will rerender after component mount one time and second time if this(in my case data or data2) is changed
// if your data is object and you want to trigger this when property of object changed, clone object like this let clone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(data)), change it clone.prop = 2 and setData(clone).
// if you do like this 'data.prop=2' without cloning useEffect will not be triggered, because link to data object in momory doesn't changed, even if object changed (as i understand this)
}, [data, data2] )
How i use it most of the time:
export default function Book({id}) {
const [book, bookSet] = useState(false)
const loadBookFromServer = useCallback(async () => {
let response = await fetch('api/book/' + id)
response = await response.json()
bookSet(response)
}, [id]) // every time id changed, new book will be loaded
useEffect(() => {
loadBookFromServer()
}, [loadBookFromServer]) // useEffect will run once and when id changes
if (!book) return false //first render, when useEffect did't triggered yet we will return false
return <div>{JSON.stringify(book)}</div>
}
I ran into the same problem too once and I fixed it by making sure I pass primitive values in the second argument [].
If you pass an object, React will store only the reference to the object and run the effect when the reference changes, which is usually every singe time (I don't now how though).
The solution is to pass the values in the object. You can try,
const obj = { keyA: 'a', keyB: 'b' }
useEffect(() => {
// do something
}, [Object.values(obj)]);
or
const obj = { keyA: 'a', keyB: 'b' }
useEffect(() => {
// do something
}, [obj.keyA, obj.keyB]);
If you are building a custom hook, you can sometimes cause an infinite loop with default as follows
function useMyBadHook(values = {}) {
useEffect(()=> {
/* This runs every render, if values is undefined */
},
[values]
)
}
The fix is to use the same object instead of creating a new one on every function call:
const defaultValues = {};
function useMyBadHook(values = defaultValues) {
useEffect(()=> {
/* This runs on first call and when values change */
},
[values]
)
}
If you are encountering this in your component code the loop may get fixed if you use defaultProps instead of ES6 default values
function MyComponent({values}) {
useEffect(()=> {
/* do stuff*/
},[values]
)
return null; /* stuff */
}
MyComponent.defaultProps = {
values = {}
}
Your infinite loop is due to circularity
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, [ingredients]);
setIngredients({}); will change the value of ingredients(will return a new reference each time), which will run setIngredients({}). To solve this you can use either approach:
Pass a different second argument to useEffect
const timeToChangeIngrediants = .....
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, [timeToChangeIngrediants ]);
setIngrediants will run when timeToChangeIngrediants has changed.
I'm not sure what use case justifies change ingrediants once it has been changed. But if it is the case, you pass Object.values(ingrediants) as a second argument to useEffect.
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, Object.values(ingrediants));
As said in the documentation (https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-effect.html), the useEffect hook is meant to be used when you want some code to be executed after every render. From the docs:
Does useEffect run after every render? Yes!
If you want to customize this, you can follow the instructions that appear later in the same page (https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-effect.html#tip-optimizing-performance-by-skipping-effects). Basically, the useEffect method accepts a second argument, that React will examine to determine if the effect has to be triggered again or not.
useEffect(() => {
document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`;
}, [count]); // Only re-run the effect if count changes
You can pass any object as the second argument. If this object remains unchanged, your effect will only be triggered after the first mount. If the object changes, the effect will be triggered again.
I'm not sure if this will work for you but you could try adding .length like this:
useEffect(() => {
// fetch from server and set as obj
}, [obj.length]);
In my case (I was fetching an array!) it fetched data on mount, then again only on change and it didn't go into a loop.
If you include empty array at the end of useEffect:
useEffect(()=>{
setText(text);
},[])
It would run once.
If you include also parameter on array:
useEffect(()=>{
setText(text);
},[text])
It would run whenever text parameter change.
I often run into an infinite re-render when having a complex object as state and updating it from useRef:
const [ingredients, setIngredients] = useState({});
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({
...ingredients,
newIngedient: { ... }
});
}, [ingredients]);
In this case eslint(react-hooks/exhaustive-deps) forces me (correctly) to add ingredients to the dependency array. However, this results in an infinite re-render. Unlike what some say in this thread, this is correct, and you can't get away with putting ingredients.someKey or ingredients.length into the dependency array.
The solution is that setters provide the old value that you can refer to. You should use this, rather than referring to ingredients directly:
const [ingredients, setIngredients] = useState({});
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients(oldIngedients => {
return {
...oldIngedients,
newIngedient: { ... }
}
});
}, []);
If you use this optimization, make sure the array includes all values from the component scope (such as props and state) that change over time and that are used by the effect.
I believe they are trying to express the possibility that one could be using stale data, and to be aware of this. It doesn't matter the type of values we send in the array for the second argument as long as we know that if any of those values change it will execute the effect. If we are using ingredients as part of the computation within the effect, we should include it in the array.
const [ingredients, setIngredients] = useState({});
// This will be an infinite loop, because by shallow comparison ingredients !== {}
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, [ingredients]);
// If we need to update ingredients then we need to manually confirm
// that it is actually different by deep comparison.
useEffect(() => {
if (is(<similar_object>, ingredients) {
return;
}
setIngredients(<similar_object>);
}, [ingredients]);
The main problem is that useEffect compares the incoming value with the current value shallowly. This means that these two values compared using '===' comparison which only checks for object references and although array and object values are the same it treats them to be two different objects. I recommend you to check out my article about useEffect as a lifecycle methods.
The best way is to compare previous value with current value by using usePrevious() and _.isEqual() from Lodash.
Import isEqual and useRef. Compare your previous value with current value inside the useEffect(). If they are same do nothing else update. usePrevious(value) is a custom hook which create a ref with useRef().
Below is snippet of my code. I was facing problem of infinite loop with updating data using firebase hook
import React, { useState, useEffect, useRef } from 'react'
import 'firebase/database'
import { Redirect } from 'react-router-dom'
import { isEqual } from 'lodash'
import {
useUserStatistics
} from '../../hooks/firebase-hooks'
export function TMDPage({ match, history, location }) {
const usePrevious = value => {
const ref = useRef()
useEffect(() => {
ref.current = value
})
return ref.current
}
const userId = match.params ? match.params.id : ''
const teamId = location.state ? location.state.teamId : ''
const [userStatistics] = useUserStatistics(userId, teamId)
const previousUserStatistics = usePrevious(userStatistics)
useEffect(() => {
if (
!isEqual(userStatistics, previousUserStatistics)
) {
doSomething()
}
})
In case you DO need to compare the object and when it is updated here is a deepCompare hook for comparison. The accepted answer surely does not address that. Having an [] array is suitable if you need the effect to run only once when mounted.
Also, other voted answers only address a check for primitive types by doing obj.value or something similar to first get to the level where it is not nested. This may not be the best case for deeply nested objects.
So here is one that will work in all cases.
import { DependencyList } from "react";
const useDeepCompare = (
value: DependencyList | undefined
): DependencyList | undefined => {
const ref = useRef<DependencyList | undefined>();
if (!isEqual(ref.current, value)) {
ref.current = value;
}
return ref.current;
};
You can use the same in useEffect hook
React.useEffect(() => {
setState(state);
}, useDeepCompare([state]));
You could also destructure the object in the dependency array, meaning the state would only update when certain parts of the object updated.
For the sake of this example, let's say the ingredients contained carrots, we could pass that to the dependency, and only if carrots changed, would the state update.
You could then take this further and only update the number of carrots at certain points, thus controlling when the state would update and avoiding an infinite loop.
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients({});
}, [ingredients.carrots]);
An example of when something like this could be used is when a user logs into a website. When they log in, we could destructure the user object to extract their cookie and permission role, and update the state of the app accordingly.
my Case was special on encountering an infinite loop, the senario was like this:
I had an Object, lets say objX that comes from props and i was destructuring it in props like:
const { something: { somePropery } } = ObjX
and i used the somePropery as a dependency to my useEffect like:
useEffect(() => {
// ...
}, [somePropery])
and it caused me an infinite loop, i tried to handle this by passing the whole something as a dependency and it worked properly.
Another worked solution that I used for arrays state is:
useEffect(() => {
setIngredients(ingredients.length ? ingredients : null);
}, [ingredients]);
I am working on a small todo app with Svelte. I list 10 todos from jsonplaceholder.
I want to count the todos whose completed property is equal to false:
const apiURL = "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos";
const limit = 10;
import { onMount } from "svelte";
import TodoItem from './TodoItem.svelte';
let todos = [];
let unsolvedTodos = [];
onMount(() => {
getTodos();
});
const getTodos = () => {
fetch(`${apiURL}?&_limit=${limit}`)
.then(res => res.json())
.then((data) => todos = data);
}
const getUnsolvedTodos = () => {
unsolvedTodos = todos.filter(todo => {
return todo.completed === false;
})
}
$:console.log(unsolvedTodos);
As can be seen in this REPL, the unsolvedTodos array is empty.
EDIT
I got the list of unsolved todos and its length, but I can not use it in the header component.
const getTodos = () => {
fetch(`${apiURL}?&_limit=${limit}`)
.then(res => res.json())
.then((data) => todos = data)
.then(getUnsolvedTodos);
}
const getUnsolvedTodos = () => {
unsolvedTodos = todos.filter(todo => {
return todo.completed === false;
})
}
$:console.log(unsolvedTodos.length);
As visible in the REPL, using <span class="count">{unsolvedTodos.length}</span> throws an unsolvedTodos is not defined error, evan though I imported the ToDoList.
Where is my mistake?
Simply importing a component into another will not expose its properties. So you cannot do import TodoList from './TodoList.svelte'; and expect unsolvedTodos to be available in the Header. All you have available is the component TodoList. From your code, you seem to make the same mistake in TodoItem where you try to access the undefined variable todos.
The problem you are facing here is that you need to share data between two or more components that have no direct relation to each other (they are not parent and child). Sharing data between such components is usually solved in one of two ways:
Through the parent
The first solution is to move the state or data to the parent. In your case that would mean that the actual list of todos and all logic regarding adding, removing, toggling, etc... is stored in App.svelte and the other components become mere representation components to which you pass this list.
<script>
import TodoList from './TodoList.svelte';
let todos = []
// Here comes logic for fetching the list and changing the state
</script>
<TodoList todos={todos} />
As you see here, the App is responsible for keeping track of the todos, while the List component would only show them. If you want to add a new item to the list, you would do it here and not in TodoList Same if you change the state of an item, you have to bubble it all the way up to App.svelte and not change the state in TodoItem that one would be purely showing the current state.
This last part is a bit cumbersome so a better option might be to
use a store
Using [stores][1] you can define one single point to keep your state and then import that state into the components that need it, for example the TodoList would be:
<script>
import { todos } from './store.js';
import TodoItem from './TodoItem.svelte';
</script>
{#each $todos as todo}
<TodoItem todo={todo} />
{/each}
Similarly TodoItem could import this store and update the responding element in the list. (Best would be to use a custom store for this so all logic really now resides in the store object).
Don't use function to calculate but use filter code inline and prefix with $ to make it reactive
$: unsolvedTodos = todos.filter(todo => {
return todo.completed === false;
});
And use this value in template
I would like to figure out how to subscribe on updates of a stored value it the redux store.
So far I've tried something like the following:
<ReactReduxContext.Consumer>
{({store}) => {
console.log('store:', store.getState());
const p = <p>{store.getState().value}</p>;
store.subscribe(() => {p.innerText = store.getState().value});
return p;
}}
</ReactReduxContext.Consumer>
bumping into the TypeError: can't define property "innerText": Object is not extensible error on updates.
So I wonder how to update the contents?
There are a few things about your code that are just not the way that we do things in React.
React is its own system for interacting with the DOM, so you should not attempt direct DOM manipulation through .innerText. Your code doesn't work because the variable p which you create is a React JSX Element rather than a raw HTML paragraph element, so it doesn't have properties like innerText.
Instead, you just return the correct JSX code based on props and state. The code will get updated any time that props or state change.
The ReactReduxContext is used internally by the react-redux package. Unless you have a good reason to use it in your app, I would not recommend it. There are two built-in ways that you can get a current value of state that is already subscribed to changes.
useSelector hook
(recommended)
export const MyComponent1 = () => {
const value = useSelector(state => state.value);
return <p>{value}</p>
}
connect higher-order component
(needed for class components which cannot use hooks)
class ClassComponent extends React.Component {
render() {
return <p>{this.props.value}</p>
}
}
const mapStateToProps = state => ({
value: state.value
});
const MyComponent2 = connect(mapStateToProps)(ClassComponent)
ReactReduxContext
(not recommended)
If anyone reading this has a good reason why they should need to use store.subscribe(), proper usage would look something like this:
const MyComponent3 = () => {
const { store } = useContext(ReactReduxContext);
const [state, setState] = useState(store.getState());
useEffect(() => {
let isMounted = true;
store.subscribe(() => {
if (isMounted) {
setState(store.getState());
}
});
// cleanup function to prevent calls to setState on an unmounted component
return () => {
isMounted = false;
};
}, [store]);
return <p>{state.value}</p>;
};
CodeSandbox Demo
I have the following components:
const ParentComponent: React.FC = () => {
const networkRef: any = useRef();
// Somewhere in the code, I call this
networkRef.current.filter(["id0, id1, id2"]);
return (
...
<VisNetwork
ref={networkRef}
/>
...
)
}
export default ParentComponent;
interface Props {
ref: any;
}
const VisNetwork: React.FC<Props> = forwardRef((props: Props, ref) => {
useImperativeHandle(ref, () => ({
filter(items: any) {
setFilterNodes(items);
nView.refresh();
}
}));
const [filterNodes, setFilterNodes] = useState<any[]>([]);
const filterNodesRef = useRef(filterNodes);
useEffect(() => {
filterNodesRef.current = filterNodes;
}, [filterNodes]);
...
// Some code to create the network (concentrate on the nodesView filter method)
const [nView, setNView] = useState<DataView>();
const nodesView = new DataView(nodes, {
filter: (n: any) => {
if (filterNodesRef.current.includes(n.id)) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
})
setNView(nodesView);
const network = new vis.Network(container, {nodes: nodesView, edges: edgesView}, options);
});
export default VisNetwork;
WHen I call network.current.filter([...]), it will set the filterNodes state. Also, it should set the filterNodesRef inside the useEffect.
However, the filterNodesRef.current remains to be empty array.
But when I call network.current.filter([...]) the second time, only then the filterNodesRef.current got the value and the DataView was able to filter.
Why is it like this? I thought the useRef.current will always contain the latest value.
I finally solved this by calling the refresh() method inside the useEffect instead of the filter() method:
useEffect(() => {
filterNodesRef.current = filterNodes;
nView.refresh();
}, [filterNodes]);
Settings the .current of a reference does not notify the component about the changes. There must be some other reason why it works the second time.
From https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-reference.html#useref
Keep in mind that useRef doesn’t notify you when its content changes. Mutating the .current property doesn’t cause a re-render. If you want to run some code when React attaches or detaches a ref to a DOM node, you may want to use a callback ref instead.
You may want to use useState, as this does rerender the component.
Two more things
I'm not really sure what networkRef.current.filter(["id0, id1, id2"]) is. Typescript does complain when I try to do ['a'].filter(['a']) and I've never seen this, so are you sure this is what you wanted to do?
If you're passing references around there's probably a better way to do it. Maybe consider re-thinking the relations between your components. Are you doing this because you need access to networkRef inside multiple components? If yes, you might want to look at providers.
If this does not answer your question, write a comment (about something specific please) and I'll be happy to try and help you with it :)
Yes, useRef.current contains latest value, but your filterNodesRef.current in a useEffect that's why you get empty array in initial render.
Initial render of VisNetwork the filterNodes is an empty array ==> filterNodesRef.current remains empty. Because setFilterNodes(items); is asyn function => event you set it in useImperativeHandle it will be updated in second render.
In useImperativeHandle you set setFilterNodes(items); ==> filterNodes is updated and the VisNetwork re-render ==> useEffect is triggered ==> filterNodesRef.current is set to new filterNodes
Let's try this:
....
const filterNodesRef = useRef(filterNodes);
useImperativeHandle(ref, () => ({
filter(items: any) {
filterNodesRef.current = filterNodes;
setFilterNodes(items);
nView.refresh();
}
}));
...
Let's assume we want a Counter component <Counter startingValue={0}/> that allows us to specify the starting value in props and simply increases upon onClick.
Something like:
const Counter = (props: {startingValue: number}) => {
const dispatch = useDispatch();
const variable = useSelector(store => store.storedVariable);
return <p onClick={dispatch(() = > {storedVariable: variable})}>{variable}</p>;
}
Except, as it mounts, we'd like it to store its counting variable in the redux store (its value equal to the startingValue prop) and, as it unmounts, we'd like to delete the variable from the store.
Without the store, we could simply use the useState(props.startingValue) hook, however with the store it seems like we need constructors / equivalent.
A solution I see is to implement a useState(isInitialRender) variable and to create a variable in the store or not basing on an if instructor, albeit it looks like a bit convoluted solution to me.
I also get the feeling that I'm trying to do something against the react-redux philosophy.
This is the sort of thing that useEffect is intended for. If you specify an empty array for the second argument (the dependency array) then it will only run on the first render, and you can use the return function to remove it.
Here's roughly how to do it:
const Counter = (props: {startingValue: number}) => {
const dispatch = useDispatch();
const variable = useSelector(store => store.storedVariable);
useEffect(() => {
dispatch({type: 'store-starting-value', payload: startingValue})
return ()=>{
dispatch({type: 'clear-starting-value'})
}
}, []);
//...