Make React useEffect hook not run on initial render

According to the docs:

componentDidUpdate() is invoked immediately after updating occurs. This method is not called for the initial render.

We can use the new useEffect() hook to simulate componentDidUpdate(), but it seems like useEffect() is being ran after every render, even the first time. How do I get it to not run on initial render?

As you can see in the example below, componentDidUpdateFunction is printed during the initial render but componentDidUpdateClass was not printed during the initial render.

function ComponentDidUpdateFunction() {
  const [count, setCount] = React.useState(0);
  React.useEffect(() => {
    console.log("componentDidUpdateFunction");
  });

  return (
    <div>
      <p>componentDidUpdateFunction: {count} times</p>
      <button
        onClick={() => {
          setCount(count + 1);
        }}
      >
        Click Me
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

class ComponentDidUpdateClass extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      count: 0,
    };
  }

  componentDidUpdate() {
    console.log("componentDidUpdateClass");
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <p>componentDidUpdateClass: {this.state.count} times</p>
        <button
          onClick={() => {
            this.setState({ count: this.state.count + 1 });
          }}
        >
          Click Me
        </button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <div>
    <ComponentDidUpdateFunction />
    <ComponentDidUpdateClass />
  </div>,
  document.querySelector("#app")
);

<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/umd/react.development.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/umd/react-dom.development.js"></script>

<div id="app"></div>

We can use the useRef hook to store any mutable value we like, so we could use that to keep track of if it's the first time the useEffect function is being run.

If we want the effect to run in the same phase that componentDidUpdate does, we can use useLayoutEffect instead.

Example

const { useState, useRef, useLayoutEffect } = React;

function ComponentDidUpdateFunction() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  const firstUpdate = useRef(true);
  useLayoutEffect(() => {
    if (firstUpdate.current) {
      firstUpdate.current = false;
      return;
    }

    console.log("componentDidUpdateFunction");
  });

  return (
    <div>
      <p>componentDidUpdateFunction: {count} times</p>
      <button
        onClick={() => {
          setCount(count + 1);
        }}
      >
        Click Me
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <ComponentDidUpdateFunction />,
  document.getElementById("app")
);

<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/umd/react.development.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/umd/react-dom.development.js"></script>

<div id="app"></div>

You can turn it into custom hooks, like so:

import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

const useDidMountEffect = (func, deps) => {
    const didMount = useRef(false);

    useEffect(() => {
        if (didMount.current) func();
        else didMount.current = true;
    }, deps);
}

export default useDidMountEffect;

Usage example:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

import useDidMountEffect from '../path/to/useDidMountEffect';

const MyComponent = (props) => {    
    const [state, setState] = useState({
        key: false
    });    

    useEffect(() => {
        // you know what is this, don't you?
    }, []);

    useDidMountEffect(() => {
        // react please run me if 'key' changes, but not on initial render
    }, [state.key]);    

    return (
        <div>
             ...
        </div>
    );
}
// ...

I made a simple useFirstRender hook to handle cases like focussing a form input:

import { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';

export function useFirstRender() {
  const firstRender = useRef(true);

  useEffect(() => {
    firstRender.current = false;
  }, []);

  return firstRender.current;
}

It starts out as true, then switches to false in the useEffect, which only runs once, and never again.

In your component, use it:

const firstRender = useFirstRender();
const phoneNumberRef = useRef(null);

useEffect(() => {
  if (firstRender || errors.phoneNumber) {
    phoneNumberRef.current.focus();
  }
}, [firstRender, errors.phoneNumber]);

For your case, you would just use if (!firstRender) { ....

@ravi, yours doesn't call the passed-in unmount function. Here's a version that's a little more complete:

/**
 * Identical to React.useEffect, except that it never runs on mount. This is
 * the equivalent of the componentDidUpdate lifecycle function.
 *
 * @param {function:function} effect - A useEffect effect.
 * @param {array} [dependencies] - useEffect dependency list.
 */
export const useEffectExceptOnMount = (effect, dependencies) => {
  const mounted = React.useRef(false);
  React.useEffect(() => {
    if (mounted.current) {
      const unmount = effect();
      return () => unmount && unmount();
    } else {
      mounted.current = true;
    }
  }, dependencies);

  // Reset on unmount for the next mount.
  React.useEffect(() => {
    return () => mounted.current = false;
  }, []);
};

Make React useEffect hook not run on initial render

Related

Recent Posts