The React useState Hook allows us to track state in a function component.
State generally refers to data or properties that need to be tracking in an application.
Import useState
To use the useState Hook, we first need to import it into our component.
Example:
import { useState } from "react";
Notice that we are destructuring useState from react as it is a named export.
Note: To learn more about destructuring, check out the ES6 Destructuring section.
Initialize useState
We initialize our state by calling useState in our function component.
useState accepts an initial state and returns two values:
- The current state.
- A function that updates the state.
Example:
import { useState } from "react";
function FavoriteColor() {
const [color, setColor] = useState("red");
}
Notice that again, we are destructuring the returned values from useState.
The first value, color, is our current state.
The second value, setColor, is the function that is used to update our state.
Note: These names are variables that can be named anything you would like.
Lastly, we set the initial state to "red": useState("red")
Read State
We can now include our state anywhere in our component.
Example:
import { useState } from 'react';
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client';
function FavoriteColor() {
const [color, setColor] = useState("red");
return <h1>My favorite color is {color}!</h1>
}
createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
<FavoriteColor />
);
Update State
To update our state, we use our state updater function.
Example:
<button
type="button"
onClick={() => setColor("blue")}
>Blue</button>
Note: We should never directly update state. Ex:
color = "blue"is not allowed.
Example:
import { useState } from 'react';
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client';
function FavoriteColor() {
const [color, setColor] = useState("red");
return (
<>
<h1>My favorite color is {color}!</h1>
<button
type="button"
onClick={() => setColor("blue")}
>Blue</button>
</>
)
}
createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
<FavoriteColor />
);
What Can State Hold?
The useState Hook can be used to keep track of strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, objects, and any combination of these!
We could create multiple state Hooks to track individual values.
Example:
import { useState } from 'react';
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client';
function MyCar() {
const [brand, setBrand] = useState("Ford");
const [model, setModel] = useState("Mustang");
const [year, setYear] = useState("1964");
const [color, setColor] = useState("red");
return (
<>
<h1>My {brand}</h1>
<p>
It is a {color} {model} from {year}.
</p>
</>
)
}
createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
<MyCar />
);
Or, we can just use one state and include an object instead!
Example:
import { useState } from 'react';
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client';
function MyCar() {
const [car, setCar] = useState({
brand: "Ford",
model: "Mustang",
year: "1964",
color: "red"
});
return (
<>
<h1>My {car.brand}</h1>
<p>
It is a {car.color} {car.model} from {car.year}.
</p>
</>
)
}
createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
<MyCar />
);
Note: Since we are now tracking a single object:
car, we need to reference that object when rendering the component. (Ex:car.brand)
Updating Objects and Arrays in State
When state is updated, the entire state gets overwritten.
What if we only want to update the color of our car?
If we only called setCar({color: "blue"}), this would remove the brand, model, and year from our state.
We can use the JavaScript spread operator to help us.
Example:
const updateColor = () => {
setCar(previousState => {
return { ...previousState, color: "blue" }
});
}
Because we need the current value of state, we pass a function into our setCar function. This function receives the previous value.
We then return an object, spreading the previousState and overwriting only the color.