React js map() undefined is not a function

Question

I am new to React and I am going a little crazy trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. I am trying to iterate through a json array that I get from an ajax call. When I mock the data it works perfectly, but when I make an ajax call to get the exact same data it gives me undefined is not a function (evaluating 'this.state.list.map()')

the array:

[ { "name": "drop1" }, { "name": "drop2" }, { "name": "drop3" } ]

the function:

var List = React.createClass({
  getInitialState: function() {
   return {data: {}};
 },
 componentDidMount: function() {
   $.ajax({
       url: ACTUAL_URL,
       dataType: 'json',
       success: function(data){
         this.setState({data: data});
       }.bind(this),
       error: function(xhr, status, err){
         console.error(url, status, err.toString());
       }.bind(this)
     });
  },
  render: function() {
    return (
      <ul className="droplist">
        {this.state.data.map(function(l){
           return (<li>{l.name}</li>)
        })}
      </ul>
    );
  }
});

Any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

Change your getInitialState(). Currently your data is an object literal and object literals doesn't support map(). Change it to an array.

Answer 2

In my case I was trying to use array.map but my data actually was an object rather than array so using Object.keys(data) is the right way to iterate over objects:

Object.keys(data).forEach(item => {...});
// OR
Object.keys(data).map(item => {...});

Read details here