React router Switch behavior

(react-router-dom version: 4.1.1)

I have working routes set up, but I'm a bit confused about why the <Switch> was necessary:

index.js

import React from 'react';
import { HashRouter, Route, Switch } from 'react-router-dom';

import App from './components/App.jsx';
import FridgePage from './components/FridgePage.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(
    <HashRouter>
        <Switch>
            <Route exact path="/" component={App} />
            <Route path="/fridge" component={FridgePage} />
        </Switch>
    </HashRouter>,
    document.getElementById('root')
)

App.jsx

import Header from './Header.jsx';
import {Link} from 'react-router-dom';

export default class App extends React.Component {
    render() {
        console.log(this.props);
        return (
            <div>
                <h1>Herbnew</h1>
                <Link to="fridge">Fridge</Link>
                {this.props.children}
            </div>
        );
    }
}

FridgePage.jsx

import React from 'react';

export default class FridgePage extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <h1>Fridge</h1>
                You finally found the fridge!
            </div>
        );
    }
}

I used to have a div wrapping the routes instead of a Switch. In that case, I see the App rendered and try to click the Fridge link, but nothing happens (the FridgePage isn't rendered), and no error is output into the console.

As I understand it, the only thing the Switch does is exclusively render the first route it matches, and the common problem as a result of omitting it is rendering both pages at once. If my "/" route is exact, then even without the Switch, the Fridge should be the only route that matches, right? Why does it not render at all?

Solution 1:

<Switch> returns only one first matching route.

exact returns any number of routes that match exactly.

For example:

<Switch>
  <Route exact path="/animals" component={Animals} />
  <Route path="/animals/fish" component={Fish} />
  <Route component={Missing} />
</Switch>
<Route path="/animals" component={Order} />

If the Missing component was not inside a <Switch>, it would be returned on every single route.

With exact, the "/animals" route will not catch every route containing "/animals" such as "animals/fish".

Without exact, the "/animals/fish" route will also return the Fish component for "animals/fish/cod", "/animals/fish/salmon", etc.

Being outside the <Switch> statement and without exact, the Order component is rendered on every path containing "/animals".

Usually, if you're not using exact you would use a wildcard, so you don't return random pages.