How to use debounce with React - reactjs

Question

I've seen quite a few similar questions here, but none of the suggested solutions seemed to be working for me. Here's my problem (please notice that I'm very new to React, just learning it):
I have the following code in my App.js:
function App() {
const [movieSearchString, setMovieSearchString] = useState('')
const providerValue = {
moviesList: moviesList,
movieSearchString: movieSearchString,
}
const searchMovieHandler = () => {
console.log('movie handler called')
const params = {
apikey: 'somekey'
}
if (movieSearchString.length > 2) {
params.search = movieSearchString
}
debounce(() => {
console.log('deb: ' + movieSearchString)
}, 1000)
}
const movieInputChangeHandler = string => {
console.log('onMovieInputChange', string);
setMovieSearchString(string)
searchMovieHandler()
}
return (
<MoviesContext.Provider value={providerValue}>
<div className="App d-flex flex-column px-4 py-2">
<SearchBar
onMovieInputChange={movieInputChangeHandler}
/>
...Rest of the content
</div>
</MoviesContext.Provider>
);
}
In this situation all the console.logs get called EXCEPT the one that should be debounced (I tried both lodash debounce and my own, none worked; currently kept the lodash version).
So I tried to comment out that debounce call and tried to use it like that:
useEffect(() => {
console.log('use effect 1')
debounce(() => {
console.log('deb: ' + movieSearchString)
}, 1000)
}, [movieSearchString])
I'm getting the use effect 1 log when the movieSearchString changes, but not the debounced one.
So I tried to do this:
const debounced = useRef(debounce(() => {
console.log('deb: ' + movieSearchString)
}, 1000))
useEffect(() => debounced.current(movieSearchString), [movieSearchString])
In this case I'm getting the console log deb: after a second, but no movieSearchString is printed.
I don't know what else I can do here... Eventually what I want is when a user enters something in the text field, I want to send an API call with the entered string. I don't want to do it on every key stroke, of course, thus need the debounce. Any help, please?

Answer 1

Try to debounce the state value, not to debounce effect itself. It's easier to understand.
For example, you can use custom hook useDebounce in your project:
useDebounce.js
// borrowed from https://usehooks.com/useDebounce/
function useDebounce(value, delay) {
// State and setters for debounced value
const [debouncedValue, setDebouncedValue] = useState(value);
useEffect(
() => {
// Update debounced value after delay
const handler = setTimeout(() => {
setDebouncedValue(value);
}, delay);
// Cancel the timeout if value changes (also on delay change or unmount)
// This is how we prevent debounced value from updating if value is changed ...
// .. within the delay period. Timeout gets cleared and restarted.
return () => {
clearTimeout(handler);
};
},
[value, delay] // Only re-call effect if value or delay changes
);
return debouncedValue;
}
App.js
const [movieSearchString, setMovieSearchString] = useState('')
const debouncedMovieSearchString = useDebounce(movieSearchString, 300);
const movieInputChangeHandler = string => {
setMovieSearchString(string)
}
useEffect(() => {
console.log('see useDebounceValue in action', debouncedMovieSearchString);
}, [debouncedMovieSearchString]);
useEffect(() => {
const params = {
apikey: 'somekey'
}
if (movieSearchString.length > 2) {
params.search = debouncedMovieSearchString
}
callApi(params);
}, [debouncedMovieSearchString]);
Refer to this article: https://usehooks.com/useDebounce/

Answer 2

You need to wrap the function you want to debounce wit the debounce() function like this:
const searchMovieHandler = debounce(() => {
console.log('movie handler called')
const params = {
apikey: 'somekey'
}
if (movieSearchString.length > 2) {
params.search = movieSearchString
}
}, 1000);