In order to update a prop inside a child component, I was passing a function that updates this prop as a prop to the child component. So the question is that a good approach? and
what is the best approach to update a prop from a child component when using Typescript ?
this is called lifting state up and it is a common approach in React to keep components in sync,
it works by moving the state to the parent component (so you can share it with other siblings) and then passing the state and the event handler as a props
for more details see the official react docs
https://reactjs.org/docs/lifting-state-up.html
Related
I'm new to react. I'm going through their docs to understand how react works. So it was mentioned that when state/props/setState() changes/called, react rerenders the entire component.
Also, I read that react elements are immutable and they are rendered only when there is a change. So when react tries to render a component it actually traverses through all the elements checks for differences and renders only those elements whose data is changed. It won't simply re-render the entire component.
Am I right regarding this? Or is my understanding wrong?
I read that React elements are immutable and they are rendered only when there is a change.
Saying that React elements are immutable is not true, you need to treat them as immutable, especially component's state and props.
So when React tries to render a component it actually traverses through all the elements checks for differences and renders only those elements whose data is changed.
The default behaviour is to render all sub tree when the parent rerendered by calling setState (which triggers Reconciliation on component's sub tree).
So saying it will render components on "data change" is not true, they will rerender anyway by default, even if the "data" didn't change.
On saying "data is changed" we mean on props change (shallow comparison by default, use memoization to change it).
We can use key prop to help with the reconciliation process.
You are right, react re-renders the component when props or state changes.
That being said, when a child component received new props, react does not check if the props have changed when you use React.Component, it just re-renders even if you pass same props again.
In order to make components render only if they receive different props you can use React.PureComponent in case of class components or you can wrap the component with React.memo() in case of functional components.
I believe a clearer way to summarize when React components re-render would be:
React components re-render when, and only when:
Their state changes (via setState() or useState())
They are passed new props;
Their parent component re-renders.
Caveats:
You must update state correctly for the component to re-render, i.e. via setState() or useState(). If state changes via other, "illegal" means, such as directly accessing state, React won't notice, and won't re-render the component.
React props are read-only, so when we say "when a component's props change," we really mean when the component is passed props with changed values. The props should not be mutated within the component.
If you use useMemo() or React.memo(), then a child component will only re-render when the parent component re-renders if the props it receives have changed.
It's important to distinguish between re-rendering the virtual DOM and updating the actual DOM. Just because a component re-renders doesn't mean it's updated the DOM. When a component re-renders, React compares the new version to the previous, and only updates the actual DOM if something has changed 1, 2.
Nothing has made this clearer for me than this cheat sheet by A. Sidorenko.
Edit:
Essentially yes any state change will trigger a re-render. This includes the component where the state change was initiated and all its children. For instance, if your composition is:
A > B > C
If the state for A is updated then A, B, and C will get re-rendered. There are ways to prevent re-rendering subcomponents (e.g. memo, useMemo) so I point you the cheat sheet referred to above for the complete details.
In the React docs, it says
By default, when your component’s state or props change, your component will re-render.
I understand for state changes, but I am not sure about when props change. As far as I am aware, props are always passed from the parent component to the child component. And when the parent component re-renders (due to a state change, for example), all child components also re-render (ignoring shouldComponentUpdate). So it seems to me that if the parent component re-renders, all child components will re-render regardless of whether I am passing new props to them or not. If I do pass new props to the child component, the fact the child re-renders is simply because the parent is re-rendering, not because I am passing new props.
Is there a scenario where a parent component passes new props to a child component, causing the child component to re-render, but it is not caused simply by the parent component re-rendering?
Is it possible to see an example where a component will re-render because it receives new props, rather than because the parent is re-rendering (or its own state changed)?
Sorry if this is a basic question, I am new to React.
EDIT: I see that Redux can cause components to re-render by passing new props, I'm curious to know what Redux is doing behind the scenes to achieve this.
To answer the question you ask at the end:
If the child is a PureComponent or wrapped in React.memo it will only re-render if the props change. If the parent re-renders then the component will compare the props it receives and if they're identical to the previously passed props it will not re-render.
If the child is not a PureComponent or wrapped in React.memo then it will re-render any time its parent re-renders.
I‘m not new to react and was asking the same thing. There was an article which made it clear for me: https://thoughtbot.com/blog/react-rendering-misconception
The re-render is needed for diff-checking if DOM updates are necessary. If you‘ve implemented shouldComponentUpdate or wrapped with memo (both returning false), then rerender is skipped.
If a child component is connected using redux or context, then it might rerender even without parent being rerendered.
When you use provider, or HOC, or Redux with mapStateToProps for example, the props are changed from other component injecting props.
Connect middleware of redux is similar to subscription, each child component can directly connect to the store through subscription, and whenever the store changes, the store tries to resync all its connected components. New incoming data to any component comes as props resulting in re-render.
Any component getting changed from outside of its state can be through props only, so it is similar to a parent component passing new data / redux store pushing new data to the component.
I'm new in React Hooks and I'm wonder how its better to do some things. Example the state how its better to keep the state in parent and to pass to the child or to put the state in every component where I need the state? Witch is the good option?
Generally, if you use some state values in only one component, you can make it the state of that specific component, making it self-contained.
If a state is used in a component and some of its child components, it's a good idea to store it as a state in the component and pass it as props to child components.
If a state is used in multiple (relatively unrelated) components in an app, you can store it as a global state (through redux or context API) and use it in those components.
how can I make a component to force update its sibling. Currently my component rerenders on componentDidMount but this happens on a selection from a drop down.
Thanks
If you're incurred in this type of problem I suppose you do not use Redux or similar. The easiest way is to lift the state to the common parent component:
Doc ref: https://reactjs.org/docs/lifting-state-up.html
If Comp1 and Comp2 are siblings and Parent is the common parent for the two siblings
You can pass a callback function from Parent to Comp1, whenever Comp1 is updated it can notify the Parent via the callback prop.
In parent you can listen to props change using componentwillreceiveprops and re render the Comp2 using the changed props again passed to it from the Parent.
or in a more complicated appliation set up, you can use redux to store into a global state.
I created a simple react app and checked the app for re-renders with why-did-you-update library and it shows unnecessary re-renders and how to prevent these re-renders?
Components will get re-rendered if their props change, or if their parent has been re-rendered. It's possible that you have update the props or state of a parent component. React provides a lifecycle function called shouldComponentUpdate to deal with unnecessary renders. It is quicker and easier to implement if you use immutable data for your props since you can simply do an equality check between new props and old props to see if there was any change. See https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/component-specs.html#updating-shouldcomponentupdate and https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/pure-render-mixin.html