Leveraging Built-in React Hooks

Jul 31, 2023

React Hooks, a robust feature introduced in React 16.8, allows functional components to use state, lifecycle methods, and other React features that were previously accessible only in class components. With React Hooks, developers can either utilize built-in Hooks or build and integrate their custom ones to enhance their components.

Harnessing State Hooks

State Hooks allow a component to "remember" data such as user input. This could be a form component using state to store input values, or an image gallery component using state to store the index of the selected image. Adding state to a component is as simple as employing one of these Hooks:

useState: Declares a state variable that can be updated directly. Here's an example of how useState can be used in an image gallery component:

function ImageGallery( ) {
  const [index, setIndex] = useState(0);
  // ...
}

useReducer: Declares a state variable with the update logic encapsulated in a reducer function.

Exploring Context Hooks

Context Hooks allow a component to receive data from far-off parent components without passing it through props. This comes in handy when the top-level component in your app needs to pass the current UI theme to all components beneath it, regardless of their depth in the component tree. The useContext Hook reads and subscribes to a context:

function Button( ) {
  const theme = useContext(ThemeContext);
  // ...
}

Diving into Ref Hooks

Ref Hooks permit a component to store information not used for rendering, like a DOM node or a timeout ID. Contrasting with state, updating a ref does not trigger a re-render of your component. This makes Refs a viable "escape hatch" from the React paradigm, especially when working with non-React systems like built-in browser APIs.

The useRef Hook declares a ref, which can hold any value, but is most often used to hold a DOM node:

function Form( ) {
  const inputRef = useRef(null);
  // ...
}

Making the Most of Effect Hooks

Effect Hooks enable a component to connect and synchronize with external systems. This encompasses interaction with the network, browser DOM, animations, widgets created using a different UI library, and other non-React code. The useEffect Hook connects a component to an external system:

function ChatRoom({ roomId }) {
  useEffect(() => {
    const connection = createConnection(roomId);
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  }, [roomId]);
  // ...
}

Performance Hooks for Optimization

Performance Hooks offer a way to optimize re-rendering performance by skipping unnecessary work. For instance, you can command React to reuse a cached calculation or bypass a re-render if the data hasn't changed since the last render. For skipping calculations and unnecessary re-rendering, you can use useMemo and useCallback Hooks.

In the case of unavoidable re-rendering due to necessary screen updates, performance can be boosted by separating blocking updates that must be synchronous from non-blocking updates that don't need to block the UI.

Other Hooks

Some Hooks are primarily useful to library authors and are less frequently employed in application code. Hooks such as useDebugValue, useId, and useSyncExternalStore fall into this category.

Creating Your Own Hooks

In addition to built-in Hooks, React also allows developers to define their custom Hooks as JavaScript functions. This flexibility enables developers to extract component logic into reusable functions.

React Hooks present an efficient and elegant way to handle state and side-effects in your functional components. By mastering both built-in and custom Hooks, developers can write cleaner, more manageable code that leverages the full power of React.

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