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 make the React useEffect callback not run on the first render by creating a ref that keeps track of whether the first render is done. Then we can check the ref's value to see when the first render is done and run the function we want when the first render is done.
Take Note: always remember that useEffect will always run on initial render regardless of anything in its dependency array. We definitely don't want to actually run this effect on our data when it's undefined but rather we want to wait until it is populated from the API request.
The useEffect Hook Usages. The callback function we pass to the useEffect hook runs the side effects. React runs it on every render of a component by default.
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>
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