When react perform componentDidMount and componentWillUnmount - reactjs

Question

I played with React for several years, still confused with mount/unmount mechanism in some case.
Since mount/unmount is the place to perform side effect, I do not want them to be invoked randomly. So I need to figure out how they work. As far as I can understand currently, when the virtual dom do not present in real dom, it tend to be unmounted. However, it seems not the whole story, and I can not reason it about
function TestMount(props) {
useEffect(() => {
console.log("componentDidMount", props.name);
return () => {
console.log("componentWillUnount", props.name);
};
}, []);
return <h1>Test content {" " + JSON.stringify(props.name)}</h1>;
}
function Update({ click }) {
return <button onClick={click}>Update</button>;
}
function App() {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
const Component = name => <TestMount name={name} />;
return (
<div className="App">
<h1>{count}</h1>
<Component name="one" />
{Component("two")}
<Update click={() => setCount(x => x + 1)} />
</div>
);
}
const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
ReactDOM.render(<App />, rootElement);
Component One is remount overtime the app render while Component two not?Why this happen?

Answer 1

Component is a new function each time App is rendered, so <Component name="one" /> is remounted each time too, they are considered different components.
The result of Component("two") call is <TestMount name={"two"} />, TestMount stays the same each time App is rendered, so it's not remounted.
Component is invalid component for what it's used for, to pass name string as name prop to TestMount component because name parameter is not a string but props object when Component is used like <Component name="one" />. name => <TestMount name={name} /> is render function, it's preferable to name it accordingly like renderTestMount for clarity because components aren't supposed to be called directly like Component("two").
In case a function is supposed be used as component or render function interchangeably, the signature should be changed to ({ name }) => <TestMount name={name} />.
The expected behaviour could be achieved for <Component name="one" /> by memoizing Component:
const Component = useCallback(({ name }) => <TestMount name={name} />, []);
But since Component doesn't depend on App scope, a correct way is to define it outside:
const Component = ({ name }) => <TestMount name={name} />;
function App() {...}
For instance, this is the reason React Router Route has separate component and render props for a component and render function. This allows to prevent unnecessary remounts for route components that need to be defined dynamically in current scope.

Answer 2

The key to such issue is the difference between the React Component and React element, put shortly React is smart with element not Component
Component vs element
Component is the template used to create element using <> operation. In my prospective, <> is pretty much like new operator in OOP world.
How React perform update between renders
Every time the render method(or functional component) is invoked. The new element is created using <>, however, React is smart enough to tell the element created between renders are actually the same one, i.e. it had been created before and can be reused as long as the element is created by the same Component
How about different Component
However when the identity of the Component using to generate element changes(Even if the Components look same), React believes something new come though, so it remove(unmount) the previous element and add(mount) the new one. Thus componentDidMount or componentWillUnmount is invoked.
How is confusing
Think we got a Component and when we generate element using <Component /> react can tell the same elements because they are generated by the same Component
However, HOCComponent=()=><Component />; element= <HOCComponent />, every time element is generated, it used a different Component. it is actually a HOC constructed dynamically. Because the HOC is created dynamically inside render function, it can be confusing on the first glance.
Is that true
I never found any offical document about the idea above.However the code below is enough to prove
function TestMount(props) {
useEffect(() => {
console.log("componentDidMount", props.name);
return () => {
console.log("componentWillUnount", props.name);
};
}, []);
return <h1>Test content {" " + JSON.stringify(props.name)}</h1>;
}
function Update({ click }) {
return <button onClick={click}>Update</button>;
}
let _Component;
function cacheComponent(C) {
if (C && !_Component) {
_Component = C;
}
return _Component || null;
}
const CacheComponent2 = once(({ name }) => <TestMount name={name} />, []);
function App() {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
// can be used as a HOC of TestMount or a plain function returnnung a react element
const Component = name => <TestMount name={name} />;
const CacheComponent1 = cacheComponent(Component);
const CacheComponent3 = useCallback(
({ name }) => <TestMount name={name} />,
[]
);
return (
<div className="App">
<h1>{count}</h1>
{/* used as HOC */}
<Component name="one" />
{/* used as function returnning the element */}
{Component("two")}
<CacheComponent1 name="three" />
<CacheComponent2 name="four" />
<CacheComponent3 name="five" />
<Update click={() => setCount(x => x + 1)} />
</div>
);
}
const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
ReactDOM.render(<App />, rootElement);
Also the code above provide three different ways to avoid the undesired mount/unmount. All the solutions are cache the identity of the HOC somehow