Why calling react setState method doesn't mutate the state immediately?
I'm reading Forms section of reactjs documentation and just tried this code to demonstrate onChange
usage (JSBIN).
var React= require('react');
var ControlledForm= React.createClass({
getInitialState: function() {
return {
value: "initial value"
};
},
handleChange: function(event) {
console.log(this.state.value);
this.setState({value: event.target.value});
console.log(this.state.value);
},
render: function() {
return (
<input type="text" value={this.state.value} onChange={this.handleChange}/>
);
}
});
React.render(
<ControlledForm/>,
document.getElementById('mount')
);
When I update the <input/>
value in the browser, the second console.log
inside the handleChange
callback prints the same value
as the first console.log
, Why I can't see the result of this.setState({value: event.target.value})
in the scope of handleChange
callback?
From React's documentation:
setState()
does not immediately mutatethis.state
but creates a pending state transition. Accessingthis.state
after calling this method can potentially return the existing value. There is no guarantee of synchronous operation of calls tosetState
and calls may be batched for performance gains.
If you want a function to be executed after the state change occurs, pass it in as a callback.
this.setState({value: event.target.value}, function () {
console.log(this.state.value);
});
As mentioned in the React documentation, there is no guarantee of setState
being fired synchronously, so your console.log
may return the state prior to it updating.
Michael Parker mentions passing a callback within the setState
. Another way to handle the logic after state change is via the componentDidUpdate
lifecycle method, which is the method recommended in React docs.
Generally we recommend using componentDidUpdate() for such logic instead.
This is particularly useful when there may be successive setState
s fired, and you would like to fire the same function after every state change. Rather than adding a callback to each setState
, you could place the function inside of the componentDidUpdate
, with specific logic inside if necessary.
// example
componentDidUpdate(prevProps, prevState) {
if (this.state.value > prevState.value) {
this.foo();
}
}