Error : Cannot read property 'map' of undefined

I'm following the reactjs tutorial, and I keep running into an issue when
passing the value from the state of one component into another component.

The error Cannot read property 'map' of undefined' is thrown when the map function in the CommentList component is executed.

What would cause the prop to be undefined when passing from CommentBox into the CommentList?

// First component
var CommentList = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    var commentNodes = this.props.data.map(function (comment){
      return <div><h1>{comment.author}</h1></div>;
    });
    return <div className="commentList">{commentNodes}</div>;
  }
});
// Second component    
var CommentBox = React.createClass({
   getInitialState: function(){
     return {data: []};
   },
   getComments: function(){
      $.ajax({
        url: this.props.url,
        dataType: 'json',
        success: function(data){ this.setState({data: data}) }.bind(this),
        error: function(xhr, status, err){ console.error(url, status, err.toString()) }.bind(this)
      });
   },
   componentWillMount: function(){
      this.getComments()
   },
   render: function(){
      return <div className="commentBox">{<CommentList data={this.state.data.comments}/>}</div>;
   }
});

React.renderComponent( <CommentBox url="comments.json" />, document.getElementById('content'));

First of all, set more safe initial data:

getInitialState : function() {
    return {data: {comments:[]}};
},

And ensure your ajax data.

It should work if you follow above two instructions like Demo.

Updated: you can just wrap the .map block with conditional statement.

if (this.props.data) {
  var commentNodes = this.props.data.map(function (comment){
      return (
        <div>
          <h1>{comment.author}</h1>
        </div>
      );
  });
}

I think you forgot to change

data={this.props.data}

to

data={this.state.data}

in the render function of CommentBox. I did the same mistake when I was following the tutorial. Thus the whole render function should look like

render: function() {
  return (
    <div className="commentBox">
      <h1>Comments</h1>
      <CommentList data={this.state.data} />
      <CommentForm />
    </div>
  );
}

instead of

render: function() {
  return (
    <div className="commentBox">
      <h1>Comments</h1>
      <CommentList data={this.props.data} />
      <CommentForm />
    </div>
  );

You need to put the data before render

Should be like this:

var data = [
  {author: "Pete Hunt", text: "This is one comment"},
  {author: "Jordan Walke", text: "This is *another* comment"}
];

React.render(
  <CommentBox data={data}/>,
  document.getElementById('content')
);

Instead of this:

React.render(
  <CommentBox data={data}/>,
  document.getElementById('content')
);

var data = [
  {author: "Pete Hunt", text: "This is one comment"},
  {author: "Jordan Walke", text: "This is *another* comment"}
];

The error "Cannot read property 'map' of undefined" will be encountered if there is an error in the "this.props.data" or there is no props.data array.

Better put condition to check the the array like

if(this.props.data){
this.props.data.map(........)
.....
}