Is there a good way to use private variables and methods in React.js

Question

I've noticed that I could use private variables like this:

var Hello = React.createClass(new (function(){

    var name;

    this.getInitialState = function() {
        name = "Sir " + this.props.name;
        return null;
    };

    this.render = function() {
        return <div>Hello {name}</div>;
    };
})());

React.render(<Hello name="World" />, document.getElementById('container'));

Why I should not be doing this?

Thank you for any help

Answer 1

If you are using es7, you can define class properties as a private variables like this:

class Hello extends React.Component {
  name = 'Jack';
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        {this.name}
      </div>
    );
  }
}
export default Hello;

Be sure to use babel to compile your code with stage 0