Building User Interfaces with Pure Functions and Function Composition in React

If you're reading this you're probably familiar with the idea of functions. When to use and when to not use a function probably comes pretty natural to you. In this post we're going to learn how to leverage that knowledge to build better user interfaces.

One of the best parts of React.js is that you can use the same intuition that you have about functions for when to create new React components. However, instead of your function taking in some arguments and returning a value, your function is going to take in some arguments and return some UI. This idea can be summed up in the following formula, f(d)=V. A Function takes in some Data and returns a View. This is a beautiful way to think about developing user interfaces because now your UI is just composed of different function invocations, which is how you're already used to building applications and every benefit that you get from functions is now transferred over to your UI.

Let's look at some actual code now.

var getProfilePic = function (username) {
  return 'https://photo.fb.com/' + username
}

var getProfileLink = function (username) {
  return 'https://www.fb.com/' + username
}

var getProfileData = function (username) {
  return {
    pic: getProfilePic(username),
    link: getProfileLink(username)
  }
}

getProfileData('tylermcginnis')

Looking at the code above, we have three functions and one function invocation. You'll notice our code is very clean and organized because we've separated everything out into different functions. Each function has a specific purpose and we're composing our functions by having one function (getProfileData) which leverages the other two functions (getProfilePic and getProfileLink). Now when we invoke getProfileData we'll get an object back which represents our user. You should be very comfortable with the code above. But now what I want to do is instead of having those functions return some value, let's modify them a bit to return some UI (in the form of JSX). Here you'll really see the beauty of React's render method.

var ProfilePic = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (
      <img src={'https://photo.fb.com/' + this.props.username'} />
    )
  }
})

var ProfileLink = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
   return (
      <a href={'https://www.fb.com/' + this.props.username}>
        {this.props.username}
      </a>
    )
  }
})

var Avatar = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (
      <div>
        <ProfilePic username={this.props.username} />
        <ProfileLink username={this.props.username} />
      </div>
   )
  }
})

<Avatar username="tylermcginnis" />

Now, instead of composing functions to get some value, we're composing functions to get some UI. This idea is so important in React that React 0.14 introduced Stateless Functional Components which allows the code above to be written as normal functions (and which we'll cover more in depth later in the course).

var ProfilePic = function (props) {
  return <img src={'https://photo.fb.com/' + props.username'} />
}

var ProfileLink = function (props) {
  return (
    <a href={'https://www.fb.com/' + props.username}>
      {props.username}
    </a>
  )
}

var Avatar = function (props) {
  return (
    <div>
      <ProfilePic username={props.username} />
      <ProfileLink username={props.username} />
    </div>
  )
}

<Avatar username="tylermcginnis" />

One thing each of the functions and components above has in common is they're all "pure functions".

Perhaps one of my favorite things about React is it's given me a light introduction to functional programming (FP) and a fundamental piece of FP are pure functions.

The whole concept of a pure function is consistency and predictability (which IMO are keys to writing great software).

The reason for the consistency and predictability is because pure functions have the following characteristics.

• Pure functions always return the same result given the same arguments.
• Pure function's execution doesn't depend on the state of the application.
• Pure functions don't modify the variables outside of their scope.

When you call a function that is "pure", you can predict exactly what's going to happen based on its input. This makes functions that are pure easy to reason about and testable.

Let's look at some examples.

function add (x,y) {
  return x + y
}

Though simple, add is a pure function. There are no side effects. It will always give us the same result given the same arguments.

Let's now look at two native JavaScript methods. .slice and .splice

var friends = ['Ryan', 'Michael', 'Dan']
friends.slice(0, 1) // 'Ryan'
friends.slice(0, 1) // 'Ryan'
friends.slice(0, 1) // 'Ryan'

Notice .slice is also a pure function. Given the same arguments, it will always return the same value. It's predictable.

Let's compare this to .slice's friend, .splice

var friends = ['Ryan', 'Michael', 'Dan']
friends.splice(0, 1) // ["Ryan"]
friends.splice(0, 1) // ["Michael"]
friends.splice(0, 1) // ["Dan"]

.splice is not a pure function since each time we invoke it passing in the same arguments, we get a different result. It's also modifying state.

Why is this important for React? Well the main reason is React's render method needs to be a pure function and because it's a pure function, all of the benefits of pure functions now apply to your UI as well. Another reason is that it's a good idea to get used to making your functions pure and pushing "side effects" to the boundaries of your program. I'll say this throughout the course, React will make you a better developer if you learn React the right way. Learning to write pure functions is the first step on that journey.

Follow me on twitter @tylermcginnis33