Develop Reference

How can I render an array of components in react without them unmounting?

I have an array of React components that receive props from a map function, however the issue is that the components are mounted and unmounted on any state update. This is not an issue with array keys.
Please see codesandbox link.
const example = () => {
const components = [
(props: any) => (
<LandingFirstStep
eventImage={eventImage}
safeAreaPadding={safeAreaPadding}
isActive={props.isActive}
onClick={progressToNextIndex}
/>
),
(props: any) => (
<CameraOnboarding
safeAreaPadding={safeAreaPadding}
circleSize={circleSize}
isActive={props.isActive}
onNextClick={progressToNextIndex}
/>
),
];
return (
<div>
{components.map((Comp, index) => {
const isActive = index === currentIndex;
return <Comp key={`component-key-${index}`} isActive={isActive} />;
})}
</div>
)
}
If I render them outside of the component.map like so the follow, the component persists on any state change.
<Comp1 isActive={x === y}
<Comp2 isActive={x === y}
Would love to know what I'm doing wrong here as I am baffled.
Please take a look at this Codesandbox.
I believe I am doing something wrong when declaring the array of functions that return components, as you can see, ComponentOne is re-rendered when the button is pressed, but component two is not.

You should take a look at the key property in React. It helps React to identify which items have changed, are added, or are removed. Keys should be given to the elements inside the array to give the elements a stable identity

I think there are two problems:
To get React to reuse them efficiently, you need to add a key property to them:
return (
<div>
{components.map((Comp, index) => {
const isActive = index === currentIndex;
return <Comp key={anAppropriateKeyValue} isActive={isActive} />;
})}
</div>
);
Don't just use index for key unless the order of the list never changes (but it's fine if the list is static, as it appears to be in your question). That might mean you need to change your array to an array of objects with keys and components. From the docs linked above:
We don’t recommend using indexes for keys if the order of items may change. This can negatively impact performance and may cause issues with component state. Check out Robin Pokorny’s article for an in-depth explanation on the negative impacts of using an index as a key. If you choose not to assign an explicit key to list items then React will default to using indexes as keys.
I suspect you're recreating the example array every time. That means that the functions you're creating in the array initializer are recreated each time, which means to React they're not the same component function as the previous render. Instead, make those functions stable. There are a couple of ways to do that, but for instance you can just directly use your LandingFirstStep and CameraOnboarding components in the map callback.
const components = [
{
Comp: LandingFirstStep,
props: {
// Any props for this component other than `isActive`...
onClick: progressToNextIndex
}
},
{
Comp: CameraOnboarding,
props: {
// Any props for this component other than `isActive`...
onNextClick: progressToNextIndex
}
},
];
then in the map:
{components.map(({Comp, props}, index) => {
const isActive = index === currentIndex;
return <Comp key={index} isActive={isActive} {...props} />;
})}
There are other ways to handle it, such as via useMemo or useCallback, but to me this is the simple way — and it gives you a place to put a meaningful key if you need one rather than using index.
Here's an example handling both of those things and showing when the components mount/unmount; as you can see, they no longer unmount/mount when the index changes:
const {useState, useEffect, useCallback} = React;
function LandingFirstStep({isActive, onClick}) {
useEffect(() => {
console.log(`LandingFirstStep mounted`);
return () => {
console.log(`LandingFirstStep unmounted`);
};
}, []);
return <div className={isActive ? "active" : ""} onClick={isActive && onClick}>LoadingFirstStep, isActive = {String(isActive)}</div>;
}
function CameraOnboarding({isActive, onNextClick}) {
useEffect(() => {
console.log(`CameraOnboarding mounted`);
return () => {
console.log(`CameraOnboarding unmounted`);
};
}, []);
return <div className={isActive ? "active" : ""} onClick={isActive && onNextClick}>CameraOnboarding, isActive = {String(isActive)}</div>;
}
const Example = () => {
const [currentIndex, setCurrentIndex] = useState(0);
const progressToNextIndex = useCallback(() => {
setCurrentIndex(i => (i + 1) % components.length);
});
const components = [
{
Comp: LandingFirstStep,
props: {
onClick: progressToNextIndex
}
},
{
Comp: CameraOnboarding,
props: {
onNextClick: progressToNextIndex
}
},
];
return (
<div>
{components.map(({Comp, props}, index) => {
const isActive = index === currentIndex;
return <Comp key={index} isActive={isActive} {...props} />;
})}
</div>
);
};
ReactDOM.render(<Example/>, document.getElementById("root"));
.active {
cursor: pointer;
}
<div id="root"></div>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/17.0.1/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/17.0.1/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>

Insert a React component into an array

I have a query about the best way to go about this. So i have a stateless component called <Banner/> which just displays an image and some text.
I then have an array of objects which generates a list of features on the homepage of my site. There's roughly 15 objects in this listGroups array so it renders 15 <Group/> components one after the other. The code for this is below
{listGroups.map((group, i) => (group?.assets?.length > 0) && (
<Group key={group.id} {...group} showTitle={i !== 0} large={i === 0} />
))}
I would like to insert my <Banner/> component into this list in a specific position, ideally after the first <Group/> is rendered. I can use array.splice and add the component into a specific position into the array but it isn't rendered on the page so I'm obviously missing something here.
The end result would be something like this
<Group/>
<Banner/>
<Group/>
<Group/>
<Group/>
and so on
Any help would be appreciated.

You can create an array of JSX.Elements e.g.
const arr: JSX.Elements[] = [];
listGroups.forEach((group, i) => {
if(i == 1) arr.push(<Banner/>);
// add your Groups
})
and you can render the arr.

You have various ways to achieve this.
In React you can render array of elements inside JSX, just like any other variable. If you wish to render components based some data that comes from api you could as well map your data and pass data to component. "key" property is required in both cases so React knows when structure changes.
Live example on CodeSandbox https://codesandbox.io/s/bold-grass-p90q9
const List = [
<MyComponent key="one" text="im 1st!" />,
<MyComponent key="two" text="im 2nd" />,
<MyComponent key="three" text="im 3rd" />
];
const data = [
{ text: "1st string" },
{ text: "2st string" },
{ text: "3st string" }
];
export default function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<h3>Render array</h3>
{List}
<h3>Map from data</h3>
{data.map(({ text }) => (
<MyComponent key={text} text={text} />
))}
</div>
);
}

Check this and let me know if this is what you want
Sandbox
https://codesandbox.io/s/crazy-lalande-mx5oz
//Have taken limit as 10 for demo
export default function App() {
function print() {
let group = [];
for (let i = 0; i <= 10; i++) {
group.push(<Group key={i} />);
}
group.splice(1, 0, <Banner/>);// adding Banner at 1st index
return group;
}
return <div>{print()}</div>;
}

How do I iterate over an array with a map function, infinitely?

I am building a React JS application.
So, I want to print something over and over from an array, but it has only two elements. I am using a custom package called 'Typist' that enables me to give a 'Typing' kind of animation with whatever I type.
I am basically trying to type 'Hi', erase it and then type 'Ola' and then erase it and then start with 'Hi' again and keep repeating this pattern.
Here's what I have right now:
let greetings=["Hi","Ola"];
render() {
return(
<div className={"TypistExample-header"} >
<Typist className={"TypistExample"}>
<Typist.Delay ms={1000} />
{
greetings.map(i =>{
return <li><h1>{i}</h1>
{<Typist.Backspace count={12} delay={1000} />}
</li>
})
}
</Typist>
P.S I did find a way to do it a few times,still not infinite, by doing this:
let greetings=["Hi","Ola"];
var actualTyping= greetings.map(i =>{
return <li><h1>{i}</h1>
{<Typist.Backspace count={12} delay={1000} />}
</li>
});
var rows=[];
for(var i=0;i<10;i++){
rows.push(actualTyping)
}
return(
<div className={"TypistExample-header"} >
<Typist className={"TypistExample"}>
<Typist.Delay ms={1000} />
{rows}
</Typist>
</div>
);

You can use Typist's onTypingDone property to restart the animation. Pass the text array via state to Typist. When the typing is done, clear the state, which will remove the rendered Typist, then restore the original text, and it will be typed again (sandbox).
Note: setState is asynchronous, and it batches updates together or defers them to a later time. In this case we want to clear the text (set null), and only after the view is updated repopulate the text. To do so, we can use the 2nd param of setState, a callback that is fired only after the update (null) has been applied.
const greetings = ["Hi", "Ola"];
class ContType extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
text: props.text
};
}
onTypingDone = () => {
this.setState(
{
text: null
},
() =>
// run this callback after the state updates
this.setState({
text: this.props.text
})
);
};
render() {
const { text } = this.state;
return (
text && (
<Typist onTypingDone={this.onTypingDone}>
<Typist.Delay ms={1000} />
{text.map((i, index) => {
return (
<div key={index}>
<h1>{i}</h1>
{<Typist.Backspace count={12} delay={1000} />}
</div>
);
})}
</Typist>
)
);
}
}
render(<ContType text={greetings} />, document.getElementById("root"));

Better and simple solution would be creating a constant integer array of your choice and then mapping carried out using the value specified for integer.
const a = [1...10000]
let greetings = ["hi", "hello"]
render(){
return(
a.map( i => {
<h1>greeting[0] - greeting[1]</h1>
})
)
}
And always, keep in mind that infinite loop cause react engine to break down. Good practice is to specify an integer value for mapping for such cases.

Passing a custom argument to the eventListener in React [duplicate]

We should avoid method binding inside render because during re-rendering it will create the new methods instead of using the old one, that will affect the performance.
So for the scenarios like this:
<input onChange = { this._handleChange.bind(this) } ...../>
We can bind _handleChange method either in constructor:
this._handleChange = this._handleChange.bind(this);
Or we can use property initializer syntax:
_handleChange = () => {....}
Now lets consider the case where we want to pass some extra parameter, lets say in a simple todo app, onclick of item i need to delete the item from array, for that i need to pass either the item index or the todo name in each onClick method:
todos.map(el => <div key={el} onClick={this._deleteTodo.bind(this, el)}> {el} </div>)
For now just assume that todo names are unique.
As per DOC:
The problem with this syntax is that a different callback is created
each time the component renders.
Question:
How to avoid this way of binding inside render method or what are the alternatives of this?
Kindly provide any reference or example, thanks.

First: A simple solution will be to create a component for the content inside a map function and pass the values as props and when you call the function from the child component you can pass the value to the function passed down as props.
Parent
deleteTodo = (val) => {
console.log(val)
}
todos.map(el =>
<MyComponent val={el} onClick={this.deleteTodo}/>
)
MyComponent
class MyComponent extends React.Component {
deleteTodo = () => {
this.props.onClick(this.props.val);
}
render() {
return <div onClick={this.deleteTodo}> {this.props.val} </div>
}
}
Sample snippet
class Parent extends React.Component {
_deleteTodo = (val) => {
console.log(val)
}
render() {
var todos = ['a', 'b', 'c'];
return (
<div>{todos.map(el =>
<MyComponent key={el} val={el} onClick={this._deleteTodo}/>
)}</div>
)
}
}
class MyComponent extends React.Component {
_deleteTodo = () => {
console.log('here'); this.props.onClick(this.props.val);
}
render() {
return <div onClick={this._deleteTodo}> {this.props.val} </div>
}
}
ReactDOM.render(<Parent/>, document.getElementById('app'));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<div id="app"></div>
EDIT:
Second: The other approach to it would be to use memoize and return a function
constructor() {
super();
this._deleteTodoListener = _.memoize(
this._deleteTodo, (element) => {
return element.hashCode();
}
)
}
_deleteTodo = (element) => {
//delete handling here
}
and using it like
todos.map(el => <div key={el} onClick={this._deleteTodoListener(el)}> {el} </div>)
P.S. However this is not a best solution and will still result in
multiple functions being created but is still an improvement over the
initial case.
Third: However a more appropriate solution to this will be to add an attribute to the topmost div and get the value from event like
_deleteTodo = (e) => {
console.log(e.currentTarget.getAttribute('data-value'));
}
todos.map(el => <div key={el} data-value={el} onClick={this._deleteTodo}> {el} </div>)
However, in this case the attributes are converted to string using toString method and hence and object will be converted to [Object Object] and and array like ["1" , "2", "3"] as "1, 2, 3"

How to avoid this way of binding inside render method or what are the
alternatives of this?
If you care about re-rendering then shouldComponentUpdate and PureComponent are your friends and they will help you optimize rendering.
You have to extract "Child" component from the "Parent" and pass always the same props and implement shouldComponentUpdate or use PureComponent. What we want is a case when we remove a child, other children shouldn't be re-rendered.
Example
import React, { Component, PureComponent } from 'react';
import { render } from 'react-dom';
class Product extends PureComponent {
render() {
const { id, name, onDelete } = this.props;
console.log(`<Product id=${id} /> render()`);
return (
<li>
{id} - {name}
<button onClick={() => onDelete(id)}>Delete</button>
</li>
);
}
}
class App extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
products: [
{ id: 1, name: 'Foo' },
{ id: 2, name: 'Bar' },
],
};
this.handleDelete = this.handleDelete.bind(this);
}
handleDelete(productId) {
this.setState(prevState => ({
products: prevState.products.filter(product => product.id !== productId),
}));
}
render() {
console.log(`<App /> render()`);
return (
<div>
<h1>Products</h1>
<ul>
{
this.state.products.map(product => (
<Product
key={product.id}
onDelete={this.handleDelete}
{...product}
/>
))
}
</ul>
</div>
);
}
}
render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
Demo: https://codesandbox.io/s/99nZGlyZ
Expected behaviour
<App /> render()
<Product id=1... render()
<Product id=2... render()
When we remove <Product id=2 ... only <App /> is re-rendered.
render()
To see those messages in demo, open the dev tools console.
The same technique is used and described in article: React is Slow, React is Fast: Optimizing React Apps in Practice by François Zaninotto.

Documentation encourages to use data-attributes and access them from within evt.target.dataset:
_deleteTodo = (evt) => {
const elementToDelete = evt.target.dataset.el;
this.setState(prevState => ({
todos: prevState.todos.filter(el => el !== elementToDelete)
}))
}
// and from render:
todos.map(
el => <div key={el} data-el={el} onClick={this._deleteTodo}> {el} </div>
)
Also note that this makes sense only when you have performance issues:
Is it OK to use arrow functions in render methods?
Generally speaking, yes, it is OK, and it is often the easiest way to
pass parameters to callback functions.
If you do have performance issues, by all means, optimize!

This answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/45053753/2808062 is definitely exhaustive, but I'd say fighting excessive re-renders instead of just re-creating the tiny callback would bring you more performance improvements. That's normally achieved by implementing a proper shouldComponentUpdate in the child component.
Even if the props are exactly the same, the following code will still re-render children unless they prevent it in their own shouldComponentUpdate (they might inherit it from PureComponent):
handleChildClick = itemId => {}
render() {
return this.props.array.map(itemData => <Child onClick={this.handleChildClick} data={itemData})
}
Proof: https://jsfiddle.net/69z2wepo/92281/.
So, in order to avoid re-renders, the child component has to implement shouldComponentUpdate anyway. Now, the only reasonable implementation is completely ignoring onClick regardless of whether it has changed:
shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps) {
return this.props.array !== nextProps.array;
}

Rendering a list of items in React with shared state

Original Question
I'm trying to render a list of items using React. The key is that the items share a common state, which can be controlled by each item.
For the sake of simplicity, let's say we have an array of strings. We have a List component that maps over the array, and generates the Item components. Each Item has a button that when clicked, it changes the state of all the items in the list (I've included a code snippet to convey what I'm trying to do).
I'm storing the state at the List component, and passing down its value to each Item child via props. The issue I'm encountering is that the button click (within Item) is not changing the UI state at all. I believe the issue has to do with the fact that items is not changing upon clicking the button (rightfully so), so React doesn't re-render the list (I would have expected some kind of UI update given the fact that the prop isEditing passed onto Item changes when the List state changes).
How can I have React handle this scenario?
Note: there seems to be a script error when clicking the Edit button in the code snippet, but I don't run into it when I run it locally. Instead, no errors are thrown, but nothing in the UI gets updated either. When I debug it, I can see that the state change in List is not propagated to its children.
Edited Question
Given the original question was not clear enough, I'm rephrasing it below.
Goal
I want to render a list of items in React. Each item should show a word, and an Edit button. The user should only be able edit one item at a time.
Acceptance Criteria
Upon loading, the user sees a list of words with an Edit button next to each.
When clicking Edit for item 1, only item 1 becomes editable and the Edit button becomes a Save button. The rest of the items on the list should no longer show their corresponding Edit button.
Upon clicking Save for item 0, the new value is shown for that item. All the Edit buttons (for the rest of the items) should become visible again.
Problem
On my original implementation, I was storing an edit state in the parent component (List), but this state wasn't properly being propagated to its Item children.
NOTE: My original implementation is lacking on the state management logic, which I found out later was the main culprit (see my response below). It also has a bind bug as noted by #Zhang below. I'm leaving it here for future reference, although it's not really a good example.
Here's my original implementation:
const items = ['foo', 'bar'];
class List extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
isEditing: false
};
}
toggleIsEditing() {
this.setState((prevState) => {
return {
isEditing: !prevState.isEditing
}
});
}
render() {
return (
<ul>
{items.map((val) => (
<Item value={val}
toggleIsEditing={this.toggleIsEditing}
isEditing={this.state.isEditing}/>
))}
</ul>
);
}
}
class Item extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<li>
<div>
<span>{this.props.value}</span>
{ !this.props.isEditing &&
(<button onClick={this.props.toggleIsEditing}>
Edit
</button>)
}
{ this.props.isEditing &&
(<div>
<span>...Editing</span>
<button onClick={this.props.toggleIsEditing}>
Stop
</button>
</div>)
}
</div>
</li>
);
}
}
ReactDOM.render(<List />, document.getElementById('app'));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<body>
<div id="app" />
</body>

you didn't bind the parent scope when passing toggleIsEditing to child component
<Item value={val}
toggleIsEditing={this.toggleIsEditing.bind(this)}
isEditing={this.state.isEditing}/>

I figured out the solution when I rephrased my question, by rethinking through my implementation. I had a few issues with my original implementation:
The this in the non-lifecycle methods in the List class were not bound to the class scope (as noted by #ZhangBruce in his answer).
The state management logic in List was lacking other properties to be able to handle the use case.
Also, I believe adding state to the Item component itself was important to properly propagate the updates. Specifically, adding state.val was key (from what I understand). There may be other ways (possibly simpler), in which case I'd be curious to know, but in the meantime here's my solution:
const items = ['foo', 'bar'];
class List extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
editingFieldIndex: -1
};
}
setEdit = (index = -1) => {
this.setState({
editingFieldIndex: index
});
}
render() {
return (
<ul>
{items.map((val, index) => (
<Item val={val}
index={index}
setEdit={this.setEdit}
editingFieldIndex={this.state.editingFieldIndex} />
))}
</ul>
);
}
}
class Item extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
val: props.val
};
}
save = (evt) => {
this.setState({
val: evt.target.value
});
}
render() {
const { index, setEdit, editingFieldIndex } = this.props;
const { val } = this.state;
const shouldShowEditableValue = editingFieldIndex === index;
const shouldShowSaveAction = editingFieldIndex === index;
const shouldHideActions =
editingFieldIndex !== -1 && editingFieldIndex !== index;
const editableValue = (
<input value={val} onChange={(evt) => this.save(evt)}/>
)
const readOnlyValue = (
<span>{val}</span>
)
const editAction = (
<button onClick={() => setEdit(index)}>
Edit
</button>
)
const saveAction = (
<button onClick={() => setEdit()}>
Save
</button>
)
return (
<li>
<div>
{ console.log(`index=${index}`) }
{ console.log(`editingFieldIndex=${editingFieldIndex}`) }
{ console.log(`shouldHideActions=${shouldHideActions}`) }
{
shouldShowEditableValue
? editableValue
: readOnlyValue
}
{
!shouldHideActions
? shouldShowSaveAction
? saveAction
: editAction
: ""
}
</div>
</li>
);
}
}
ReactDOM.render(<List />, document.getElementById('app'));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<body>
<div id="app" />
</body>