React hooks: How do I update state on a nested object with useState()?

Question

I have a component that receives a prop that looks like this:

const styles = {
    font: {
        size: {
            value: '22',
            unit: 'px'
        },
        weight: 'bold',
        color: '#663300',
        family: 'arial',
        align: 'center'
    }
};

I'm trying to update the align property, but when I try to update the object, I wind up replacing the whole object with just the align property.

this is how I'm updating it:

const { ...styling } = styles;
const [style, setStyle] = useState(styling);

return (
        <RadioButtonGroup
            onChange={(event) => {
                setStyle({ ...style, font: { align: event.target.value } });
                console.log(style);
            }}
        />);

When I console.log style I just get {"font":{"align":"left"}} back. I expected to see the whole object with the updated value for align. I'm new to destructuring so what am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

You need to use spread syntax to copy the font object properties too. Also while trying to update current state based on previous, use the callback pattern

<RadioButtonGroup
  onChange={(event) => { 
    setStyle(prevStyle => ({
        ...prevStyle,
        font: { ...prevStyle.font, align: event.target.value }
    }));
    console.log(style);
  }}
/>

Answer 2

This is your mistake

setStyle({
    ...style,
    font: { align: event.target.value } // This code replace the font object
});

To preserve the all font object values, you can do like this

const onChange = (event) => {
    const s = {...style};
    s.font.align = event.target.value;
    setStyle(s);
}

Or

const onChange = (event) => {
    setStyle({ 
        ...style,
        font: {
            ...style.font, // Spread the font object to preserve all values
            align: event.target.value
        }
    });
}