DEV Community

Don't be too dependent on useState, useRef is there for you

sakethk on July 24, 2021

Hello 👋 Hope all are doing good in this pandemic time. Whenever i am seeing any reactjs code snippets in internet i am noticing the unnecessary u...
Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

So basically you're shifting the re-render from react's reconciler to the DOM. If you want to forgo the virtual DOM in order to improve performance, you could also consider a framework like Svelte or SolidJS.

Collapse
 
jwhenry3 profile image
Justin Henry

I see useRef as a way to do internal state updates without causing a re-render. Something you want to retain without impacting renders. When most of the world has moved to Svelte/Solid, then I think most react devs will be happy to move over, but since the job market is not there for it, it makes it less valuable to an individual engineer to invest in it so fully.

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

Here's an issue: react does not guarantee that the nodes it manages stay the exact same. So if something else causes a re-render, you may lose the attribute if it is also managed by react and thus overwritten by the reconciler.

And as I already stated, the DOM of the changed node will re-render anyways, only the virtual DOM will not precede that update.

If your goal is performance, better avoid unnecessary re-rendering of components. Fine-grained updates should be sufficiently performant already - and if they aren't, your problem is either somewhere else or react is not the solution. Maybe Svelte or SolidJS would be a solution in that case - that's all I'm saying - not that everyone should switch.

That being said, the best thing about react is the tooling, which makes for a developer experience unmatched by most other frameworks.

Collapse
 
sakethkowtha profile image
sakethk • Edited

I am not saying Don't use state. My intention is to reduce the usage of useState where ever it is unnecessary and one more if we are working in any react project which is in mature state there we cannot change the tech-stack so at-least we can improve it by doing few things like this.

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

On one hand, you're reducing the usage of state, on the other you're making it harder for other maintainers, if there are any. Especially if there are side effects that should influence the state (e.g. a server-side confirmation about the toggle), you'll switch back to state anyways.

You still have a point: don't overuse state - and make your state as dumb as possible. It'll save trouble in the long run.

Collapse
 
shubhamtiwari909 profile image
Shubham Tiwari

Hey I want to ask something if you don't mind

Collapse
 
sakethkowtha profile image
sakethk
Collapse
 
shubhamtiwari909 profile image
Shubham Tiwari

The question is
I have a list in my 'Home Page' and there is another 'Add User' page
So when I add a user on my 'Add User' page using a button, Then how can I show the list of users on my 'Home Page' using map function.

It's like using a button a add something on one page and then show that thing on another page.

I want the logic and some help

Thread Thread
 
shubhamtiwari909 profile image
Shubham Tiwari

For example if add a name using input field and that things is added to list but I want to show that list on a different page not on the one I used to add it

Thread Thread
 
sakethkowtha profile image
sakethk

You can try two things

  1. React context or
  2. React Redux

i would say react context will be the better option
refer this for context kentcdodds.com/blog/how-to-use-rea...

Thread Thread
 
sakethkowtha profile image
sakethk

this is basic example : daveceddia.com/usecontext-hook/

Thread Thread
 
shubhamtiwari909 profile image
Shubham Tiwari

Thank you I get the concept
I will try to implement it for my project hope it may work

Collapse
 
anubra266 profile image
Abraham

If I got this right. I should use state only for data manipulation. But refs for DOM manipulation

Collapse
 
sakethkowtha profile image
sakethk

If you are doing only dom manipulation then instead of state ref will be good choice.

Collapse
 
svbofficial1 profile image
SVB_official

Why can't you use the single object in useState? In this case you will avoid 'the horrible performance bottleneck' because you will have only 1 re-render in this way.

Collapse
 
sakethkowtha profile image
sakethk • Edited

Re-rendering will happen once we update the state. Even if we use single state object or multiple state variables it will be same. I guess it wont help 🤔