What is useState() in React?

Question

React hooks are a new way (still being developed) to access the core features of react such as state without having to use classes, in your example if you want to increment a counter directly in the handler function without specifying it directly in the onClick prop, you could do something like:

...
const [count, setCounter] = useState(0);
const [moreStuff, setMoreStuff] = useState(...);
...

const setCount = () => {
    setCounter(count + 1);
    setMoreStuff(...);
    ...
};

and onClick:

<button onClick={setCount}>
    Click me
</button>

Let's quickly explain what is going on in this line:

const [count, setCounter] = useState(0);

useState(0) returns a tuple where the first parameter count is the current state of the counter and setCounter is the method that will allow us to update the counter's state. We can use the setCounter method to update the state of count anywhere - In this case we are using it inside of the setCount function where we can do more things; the idea with hooks is that we are able to keep our code more functional and avoid class based components if not desired/needed.

I wrote a complete article about hooks with multiple examples (including counters) such as this codepen, I made use of useState, useEffect, useContext, and custom hooks. I could get into more details about how hooks work on this answer but the documentation does a very good job explaining the state hook and other hooks in detail, hope it helps.

update: Hooks are not longer a proposal, since version 16.8 they're now available to be used, there is a section in React's site that answers some of the FAQ.

useState is one of build-in react hooks available in 0.16.7 version.

useState should be used only inside functional components. useState is the way if we need an internal state and don't need to implement more complex logic such as lifecycle methods.

const [state, setState] = useState(initialState);

Returns a stateful value, and a function to update it.

During the initial render, the returned state (state) is the same as the value passed as the first argument (initialState).

The setState function is used to update the state. It accepts a new state value and enqueues a re-render of the component.

Please note that useState hook callback for updating the state behaves differently than components this.setState. To show you the difference I prepared two examples.

class UserInfoClass extends React.Component {
  state = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe' };
  
  render() {
    return <div>
      <p>userInfo: {JSON.stringify(this.state)}</p>
      <button onClick={() => this.setState({ 
        firstName: 'Jason'
      })}>Update name to Jason</button>
    </div>;
  }
}

// Please note that new object is created when setUserInfo callback is used
function UserInfoFunction() {
  const [userInfo, setUserInfo] = React.useState({ 
    firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe',
  });

  return (
    <div>
      <p>userInfo: {JSON.stringify(userInfo)}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setUserInfo({ firstName: 'Jason' })}>Update name to Jason</button>
    </div>
  );
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <div>
    <UserInfoClass />
    <UserInfoFunction />
  </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>

New object is created when setUserInfo callback is used. Notice we lost lastName key value. To fixed that we could pass function inside useState.

setUserInfo(prevState => ({ ...prevState, firstName: 'Jason' })

See example:

// Please note that new object is created when setUserInfo callback is used
function UserInfoFunction() {
  const [userInfo, setUserInfo] = React.useState({ 
    firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe',
  });

  return (
    <div>
      <p>userInfo: {JSON.stringify(userInfo)}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setUserInfo(prevState => ({
        ...prevState, firstName: 'Jason' }))}>
        Update name to Jason
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

ReactDOM.render(
    <UserInfoFunction />
, 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>

Unlike the setState method found in class components, useState does not automatically merge update objects. You can replicate this behavior by combining the function updater form with object spread syntax:

setState(prevState => {
  // Object.assign would also work
  return {...prevState, ...updatedValues};
});

For more about useState see official documentation.

The syntax of useState hook is straightforward.

const [value, setValue] = useState(defaultValue)

If you are not familiar with this syntax, go here.

I would recommend you reading the documentation.There are excellent explanations with decent amount of examples.

import { useState } from 'react';

function Example() {
    // Declare a new state variable, which we'll call "count"
    const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  
  // its up to you how you do it
  const buttonClickHandler = e => {
   // increment
   // setCount(count + 1)
   
   // decrement
   // setCount(count -1)
   
   // anything
   // setCount(0)
  }
  

  return (
       <div>
          <p>You clicked {count} times</p>
         <button onClick={buttonClickHandler}>
             Click me
         </button>
      </div>
   );
 }

useState is one of the hooks available in React v16.8.0. It basically lets you turn your otherwise non-stateful/functional components to one that can have its own state.

At the very basic level, it's used this way:

const [isLoading, setLoading] = useState(true);

This then lets you call setLoading passing a boolean value. It's a cool way of having "stateful" functional component.

useState() is a React hook. Hooks make possible to use state and mutability inside function components.

While you can't use hooks inside classes you can wrap your class component with a function one and use hooks from it. This is a great tool for migrating components from class to function form. Here is a complete example:

For this example I will use a counter component. This is it:

class Hello extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { count: props.count };
  }
  
  inc() {
    this.setState(prev => ({count: prev.count+1}));
  }
  
  render() {
    return <button onClick={() => this.inc()}>{this.state.count}</button>
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<Hello count={0}/>, document.getElementById('root'))

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.6.3/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.6.3/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<div id='root'></div>

It is a simple class component with a count state, and state update is done by methods. This is very common pattern in class components. The first thing is to wrap it with a function component with just the same name, that delegate all its properties to the wrapped component. Also you need to render the wrapped component in the function return. Here it is:

function Hello(props) {
  class Hello extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      this.state = { count: props.count };
    }

    inc() {
      this.setState(prev => ({count: prev.count+1}));
    }

    render() {
      return <button onClick={() => this.inc()}>{this.state.count}</button>
    }
  }
  return <Hello {...props}/>
}

ReactDOM.render(<Hello count={0}/>, document.getElementById('root'))

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.6.3/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.6.3/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<div id='root'></div>

This is exactly the same component, with the same behavior, same name and same properties. Now lets lift the counting state to the function component. This is how it goes:

function Hello(props) {
  const [count, setCount] = React.useState(0);
  class Hello extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      this.state = { count: props.count };
    }

    inc() {
      this.setState(prev => ({count: prev.count+1}));
    }

    render() {
      return <button onClick={() => setCount(count+1)}>{count}</button>
    }
  }
  return <Hello {...props}/>
}

ReactDOM.render(<Hello count={0}/>, document.getElementById('root'))

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.8.6/umd/react.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-3vo65ZXn5pfsCfGM5H55X+SmwJHBlyNHPwRmWAPgJnM=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.8.6/umd/react-dom.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-qVsF1ftL3vUq8RFOLwPnKimXOLo72xguDliIxeffHRc=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<div id='root'></div>

Note that the method inc is still there, it wont hurt anybody, in fact is dead code. This is the idea, just keep lifting state up. Once you finished you can remove the class component:

function Hello(props) {
  const [count, setCount] = React.useState(0);

  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count+1)}>{count}</button>;
}

ReactDOM.render(<Hello count={0}/>, document.getElementById('root'))

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.8.6/umd/react.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-3vo65ZXn5pfsCfGM5H55X+SmwJHBlyNHPwRmWAPgJnM=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.8.6/umd/react-dom.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-qVsF1ftL3vUq8RFOLwPnKimXOLo72xguDliIxeffHRc=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

<div id='root'></div>

While this makes possible to use hooks inside class components, I would not recommend you to do so except if you migrating like I did in this example. Mixing function and class components will make state management a mess. I hope this helps

Best Regards

useState() is an example built-in React hook that lets you use states in your functional components. This was not possible before React 16.7.

The useState function is a built in hook that can be imported from the react package. It allows you to add state to your functional components. Using the useState hook inside a function component, you can create a piece of state without switching to class components.

Thanks loelsonk, i did so

const [dataAction, setDataAction] = useState({name: '', description: ''});

    const _handleChangeName = (data) => {
        if(data.name)
            setDataAction( prevState  => ({ ...prevState,   name : data.name }));
        if(data.description)
            setDataAction( prevState  => ({ ...prevState,   description : data.description }));
    };
    
    ....return (
    
          <input onChange={(event) => _handleChangeName({name: event.target.value})}/>
          <input onChange={(event) => _handleChangeName({description: event.target.value})}/>
    )