ReactJS: setTimeout() not working?

Having this code in mind:

var Component = React.createClass({

    getInitialState: function () {
        return {position: 0};    
    },

    componentDidMount: function () {
        setTimeout(this.setState({position: 1}), 3000);
    },

    render: function () {
         return (
            <div className="component">
                {this.state.position}
            </div>
         ); 
    }

});

ReactDOM.render(
    <Component />,
    document.getElementById('main')
);

Isn't the state supposed to change only after 3 seconds? It's changing immediately.

My main goal here is to change the state every 3 seconds (with setInterval()), but since it was not working, I tried setTimeout(), which is not working either. Any lights on this? Thanks!

Solution 1:

Do

setTimeout(
    function() {
        this.setState({ position: 1 });
    }
    .bind(this),
    3000
);

Otherwise, you are passing the result of setState to setTimeout.

You can also use ES6 arrow functions to avoid the use of this keyword:

setTimeout(
  () => this.setState({ position: 1 }), 
  3000
);

Solution 2:

setTimeout(() => {
  this.setState({ position: 1 });
}, 3000);

The above would also work because the ES6 arrow function does not change the context of this.

Solution 3:

Anytime we create a timeout we should s clear it on componentWillUnmount, if it hasn't fired yet.

      let myVar;
         const Component = React.createClass({

            getInitialState: function () {
                return {position: 0};    
            },

            componentDidMount: function () {
                 myVar = setTimeout(()=> this.setState({position: 1}), 3000)
            },

            componentWillUnmount: () => {
              clearTimeout(myVar);
             };
            render: function () {
                 return (
                    <div className="component">
                        {this.state.position}
                    </div>
                 ); 
            }

        });

ReactDOM.render(
    <Component />,
    document.getElementById('main')
);

Solution 4:

I know this is a little old, but is important to notice that React recomends to clear the interval when the component unmounts: https://reactjs.org/docs/state-and-lifecycle.html

So I like to add this answer to this discussion:

  componentDidMount() {
    this.timerID = setInterval(
      () => this.tick(),
      1000
    );
  }
  componentWillUnmount() {
    clearInterval(this.timerID);
  }