useEffect dependency causes infinite loop - reactjs

Question

I created a custom hook which I use in App.js
The custom hook (relevant function is fetchTasks):
export default function useFetch() {
const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
const [error, setError] = useState(false);
const [tasks, setTasks] = useState([]);
const fetchTasks = async (url) => {
setLoading(true);
setError(null);
try {
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error("falied!");
}
const data = await response.json();
const loadedTasks = [];
for (const taskKey in data) {
loadedTasks.push({ id: taskKey, text: data[taskKey].text });
}
setTasks(loadedTasks);
} catch (err) {
console.log(err.message);
}
setLoading(false);
};
return {
loading,
setLoading,
error,
setError,
fetchTasks,
tasks,
};
}
Then in my App.js:
function App() {
const { loading, setLoading, error, setError, fetchTasks, tasks } =
useFetch();
useEffect(() => {
console.log("fetching");
fetchTasks(
"https://.....firebaseio.com/tasks.json"
);
}, []);
My IDE suggests adding the fetchTasks function as a dependency to useEffect. But once I add it, an infinite loop is created. If I omit it from the dependencies as shown in my code, it will work as expected, but I know this is a bad practice. What should I do then?

Answer 1

Because that every time you call useFetch(). fetchTasks function will be re-created. That cause the reference to change at every render then useEffect() will detected that dependency fetchTasks is re-created and execute it again, and make the infinite loop.
So you can leverage useCallback() to memoize your fetchTasks() function so the reference will remains unchanged.
import { useCallback } from 'react'
export default function useFetch() {
const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
const [error, setError] = useState(false);
const [tasks, setTasks] = useState([]);
const fetchTasks = useCallback(
async (url) => {
setLoading(true);
setError(null);
try {
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error("falied!");
}
const data = await response.json();
const loadedTasks = [];
for (const taskKey in data) {
loadedTasks.push({ id: taskKey, text: data[taskKey].text });
}
setTasks(loadedTasks);
} catch (err) {
console.log(err.message);
}
setLoading(false);
};,[])
return {
loading,
setLoading,
error,
setError,
fetchTasks,
tasks,
};
}
function App() {
const { loading, setLoading, error, setError, fetchTasks, tasks } =
useFetch();
useEffect(() => {
console.log("fetching");
fetchTasks(
"https://.....firebaseio.com/tasks.json"
);
}, [fetchTasks]);

Answer 2

instead of return fetchTasks function return this useCallback fetchTasksCallback function from useFetch hook which created only one instance of fetchTasksCallback.
const fetchTasksCallback = useCallback(
(url) => {
fetchTasks(url);
},
[],
);
function App() {
const { loading, setLoading, error, setError, fetchTasksCallback, tasks } =
useFetch();
useEffect(() => {
console.log("fetching");
fetchTasksCallback(
"https://.....firebaseio.com/tasks.json"
);
}, [fetchTasksCallback]);
the problem is this fetchTasks every time create a new instance that way dependency list feels that there is a change and repeats the useEffect code block which causes the infinite loop problem