React: Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes

If you’ve ever worked with React, you might have come across the error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes”. At first, this message might seem cryptic and confusing, but with a little bit of understanding, you can learn how to fix it.

What does the error message mean?

The error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes” typically occurs when you’re passing props down to a component incorrectly.

In React, components are the building blocks of an application. They’re reusable pieces of code that help create user interfaces. In order to add functionality or data to a component, you can pass props down to it.

Props in React are passed as objects. When you pass props down to a component, they’re typically contained within curly braces. For example, if you have a component called “Button” and you want to pass it a prop called “label”, you would do so like this:

<Button label="Click me!" />

However, if the prop you’re passing down has children elements, such as a <div> or a <p>, you’ll need to account for that in your code.

The error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes” occurs when you’re trying to pass props down to a component, but the component doesn’t recognize the props you’re passing.

Example code

Let’s take a look at some example code to help explain the error message.

interface ButtonProps {
  label: string,
  children: ReactNode
}

const Button = ({label, children}: ButtonProps) => {
  return (
    <button>{label}</button>
    {children}
  )
}

const App = () => {
  return (
    <Button label="Click me!">
      <div>Hello, world!</div>
    </Button>
  )
}

In this example code, we have a component called “Button”. The component takes two props: “label” and “children”. The “label” prop is a string and the “children” prop is a ReactNode.

ReactNode is a type that describes any kind of React node - it could be a ReactElement (usually JSX) or even another ReactNode.

The “Button” component contains a button that displays the label passed down to it. It also contains any children elements passed down to it.

In the “App” component, we’re rendering the “Button” component and passing it a label of “Click me!” and a child element of a <div> that says “Hello, world!”.

However, when we try to run this code, we get the error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes”.

Solving the error message

The error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes” occurs because we’re trying to pass children elements to a component incorrectly.

In order to fix this error message, we need to modify the “Button” component so that it accepts children elements as props.

interface ButtonProps {
  label: string,
  children?: ReactNode
}

const Button = ({label, children}: ButtonProps) => {
  return (
    <>
      <button>{label}</button>
      {children}
    </>
  )
}

In this updated “Button” component, we’ve modified the “children” prop so that it’s optional. We’ve also wrapped the button and children elements in a <></> fragment.

Fragments allow you to group a list of children without adding extra nodes to the DOM. This way, you can pass down multiple children elements to a component without causing any issues.

Now, when we run the code, we no longer get the error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes”.

Conclusion

In summary, the error message “Type {children: Element} has no properties in common with type IntrinsicAttributes” occurs when you’re trying to pass props down to a component incorrectly.

By modifying your component to accept children elements as props and using fragments to group multiple children, you can solve this error message and properly pass props down to your components.

Remember to always check your code and make sure you’re passing props down correctly to avoid errors like this one.