Updating an object with setState in React

Is it at all possible to update object's properties with setState?

Something like:

this.state = {
   jasper: { name: 'jasper', age: 28 },
}

I have tried:

this.setState({jasper.name: 'someOtherName'});

and this:

this.setState({jasper: {name: 'someothername'}})

The first results in a syntax error and the second just does nothing. Any ideas?

Solution 1:

There are multiple ways of doing this, since state update is a async operation, so to update the state object, we need to use updater function with setState.

1- Simplest one:

First create a copy of jasper then do the changes in that:

this.setState(prevState => {
  let jasper = Object.assign({}, prevState.jasper);  // creating copy of state variable jasper
  jasper.name = 'someothername';                     // update the name property, assign a new value                 
  return { jasper };                                 // return new object jasper object
})

Instead of using Object.assign we can also write it like this:

let jasper = { ...prevState.jasper };

2- Using spread syntax:

this.setState(prevState => ({
    jasper: {                   // object that we want to update
        ...prevState.jasper,    // keep all other key-value pairs
        name: 'something'       // update the value of specific key
    }
}))

Note: Object.assign and Spread Operator creates only shallow copy, so if you have defined nested object or array of objects, you need a different approach.

Updating nested state object:

Assume you have defined state as:

this.state = {
  food: {
    sandwich: {
      capsicum: true,
      crackers: true,
      mayonnaise: true
    },
    pizza: {
      jalapeno: true,
      extraCheese: false
    }
  }
}

To update extraCheese of pizza object:

this.setState(prevState => ({
  food: {
    ...prevState.food,           // copy all other key-value pairs of food object
    pizza: {                     // specific object of food object
      ...prevState.food.pizza,   // copy all pizza key-value pairs
      extraCheese: true          // update value of specific key
    }
  }
}))

Updating array of objects:

Lets assume you have a todo app, and you are managing the data in this form:

this.state = {
  todoItems: [
    {
      name: 'Learn React Basics',
      status: 'pending'
    }, {
      name: 'Check Codebase',
      status: 'pending'
    }
  ]
}

To update the status of any todo object, run a map on the array and check for some unique value of each object, in case of condition=true, return the new object with updated value, else same object.

let key = 2;
this.setState(prevState => ({

  todoItems: prevState.todoItems.map(
    el => el.key === key? { ...el, status: 'done' }: el
  )

}))

Suggestion: If object doesn't have a unique value, then use array index.

Solution 2:

This is the fastest and the most readable way:

this.setState({...this.state.jasper, name: 'someothername'});

Even if this.state.jasper already contains a name property, the new name name: 'someothername' with be used.