What's the difference between "super()" and "super(props)" in React when using es6 classes?

Question

When is it important to pass props to super(), and why?

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(); // or super(props) ?
  }
}

Answer 1

There is only one reason when one needs to pass props to super():

When you want to access this.props in constructor.

Passing:

class MyComponent extends React.Component {    
    constructor(props) {
        super(props)

        console.log(this.props)
        // -> { icon: 'home', … }
    }
}

Not passing:

class MyComponent extends React.Component {    
    constructor(props) {
        super()

        console.log(this.props)
        // -> undefined

        // Props parameter is still available
        console.log(props)
        // -> { icon: 'home', … }
    }

    render() {
        // No difference outside constructor
        console.log(this.props)
        // -> { icon: 'home', … }
    }
}

Note that passing or not passing props to super has no effect on later uses of this.props outside constructor. That is render, shouldComponentUpdate, or event handlers always have access to it.

This is explicitly said in one Sophie Alpert's answer to a similar question.

---

The documentation—State and Lifecycle, Adding Local State to a Class, point 2—recommends:

Class components should always call the base constructor with props.

However, no reason is provided. We can speculate it is either because of subclassing or for future compatibility.

(Thanks @MattBrowne for the link)

Answer 2

In this example, you are extending the React.Component class, and per the ES2015 spec, a child class constructor cannot make use of this until super() has been called; also, ES2015 class constructors have to call super() if they are subclasses.

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  constructor() {
    console.log(this); // Reference Error
  }

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

By contrast:

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  constructor() {
    super();
    console.log(this); // this logged to console
  }

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

More detail as per this excellent stack overflow answer

You may see examples of components created by extending the React.Component class that do not call super() but you'll notice these don't have a constructor, hence why it is not necessary.

class MyOtherComponent extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <div>Hi {this.props.name}</div>;
  }
}

One point of confusion I've seen from some developers I've spoken to is that the components that have no constructor and therefore do not call super() anywhere, still have this.props available in the render() method. Remember that this rule and this need to create a this binding for the constructor only applies to the constructor.

Answer 3

When you pass props to super, the props get assigned to this. Take a look at the following scenario:

constructor(props) {
    super();
    console.log(this.props) //undefined
}

How ever when you do :

constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    console.log(this.props) //props will get logged.
}