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How to compare oldValues and newValues on React Hooks useEffect?

People also ask

What is the difference between useEffect () and useLayoutEffect () in React?

The useLayoutEffect function is triggered synchronously before the DOM mutations are painted. However, the useEffect function is called after the DOM mutations are painted. I chose this example to make sure the browser actually has some changes to paint when the button is clicked, hence the animation.

Does useEffect do shallow comparison?

In other words, useEffect runs even though the object value(e.g. user.name ) is still the same. useEffect uses shallow equality comparison to identify whether dependencies are updated.

Can we get previous value in useEffect?

useEffect is only called after the component is rendered with the previous value. Only after the render is done is the ref object updated within useEffect.

Why does useEffect get called twice?

If you have just made a new project using Create React App or updated to React version 18, you will notice that the useEffect hook is called twice in development mode. This is the case whether you used Create React App or upgraded to React version 18.


You can write a custom hook to provide you a previous props using useRef

function usePrevious(value) {
  const ref = useRef();
  useEffect(() => {
    ref.current = value;
  });
  return ref.current;
}

and then use it in useEffect

const Component = (props) => {
    const {receiveAmount, sendAmount } = props
    const prevAmount = usePrevious({receiveAmount, sendAmount});
    useEffect(() => {
        if(prevAmount.receiveAmount !== receiveAmount) {

         // process here
        }
        if(prevAmount.sendAmount !== sendAmount) {

         // process here
        }
    }, [receiveAmount, sendAmount])
}

However its clearer and probably better and clearer to read and understand if you use two useEffect separately for each change id you want to process them separately


Incase anybody is looking for a TypeScript version of usePrevious:

In a .tsx module:

import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";

const usePrevious = <T extends unknown>(value: T): T | undefined => {
  const ref = useRef<T>();
  useEffect(() => {
    ref.current = value;
  });
  return ref.current;
};

Or in a .ts module:

import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";

const usePrevious = <T>(value: T): T | undefined => {
  const ref = useRef<T>();
  useEffect(() => {
    ref.current = value;
  });
  return ref.current;
};

Option 1 - run useEffect when value changes

const Component = (props) => {

  useEffect(() => {
    console.log("val1 has changed");
  }, [val1]);

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

Demo

Option 2 - useHasChanged hook

Comparing a current value to a previous value is a common pattern, and justifies a custom hook of it's own that hides implementation details.

const Component = (props) => {
  const hasVal1Changed = useHasChanged(val1)

  useEffect(() => {
    if (hasVal1Changed ) {
      console.log("val1 has changed");
    }
  });

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

const useHasChanged= (val: any) => {
    const prevVal = usePrevious(val)
    return prevVal !== val
}

const usePrevious = (value) => {
    const ref = useRef();
    useEffect(() => {
      ref.current = value;
    });
    return ref.current;
}


Demo


Going off the accepted answer, an alternative solution that doesn't require a custom hook:

const Component = ({ receiveAmount, sendAmount }) => {
  const prevAmount = useRef({ receiveAmount, sendAmount }).current;
  useEffect(() => {
    if (prevAmount.receiveAmount !== receiveAmount) {
     // process here
    }
    if (prevAmount.sendAmount !== sendAmount) {
     // process here
    }
    return () => { 
      prevAmount.receiveAmount = receiveAmount;
      prevAmount.sendAmount = sendAmount;
    };
  }, [receiveAmount, sendAmount]);
};

This assumes you actually need reference to the previous values for anything in the "process here" bits. Otherwise unless your conditionals are beyond a straight !== comparison, the simplest solution here would just be:

const Component = ({ receiveAmount, sendAmount }) => {
  useEffect(() => {
     // process here
  }, [receiveAmount]);

  useEffect(() => {
     // process here
  }, [sendAmount]);
};