Why State Matters: Building Dynamic Web Applications in React

The beauty of any web application is its responsiveness to users' actions. Therefore knowing how to build a dynamic and interactive app as a developer is crucial.

In this article, we are going to look into the concept of state in React, and how it makes React components dynamic and interactive.

If you're new to React, don't worry! We are going to explain the concept step by step.

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of React

Understanding Component and Data

Components in React are like building blocks; they can range from a simple button to a complex web page. So it's these building blocks that get compiled together to become a fully functional web application. React components can either be a class component or a functional component. However, we will only be focusing on functional components.

What is State

In React, state is like a safebox inside a component that holds all the information about the component.

Think of it as the specific memory for that component. The information could be emails, usernames, images, etc.

Importance of State in React Components.

React uses a building block system called "component-based architecture." Imagine the use of bricks for building a house. Each brick is the component and the house is the app built by React.

Each brick now has its state - a safebox for storing information or data.

State is crucial to each React component, as it helps the component inform React that the information or data it possesses can change. This helps developers to store information in components and display it as needed.

For example, it can help React keep track of the number of times a button is clicked and displayed on every change.

How State make Components dynamic and interact.

Since the state acts as a form of memory for each component, enabling them to respond to every action or input by the user.

The component response is based on the information stored in its memory. Such response(s) can be triggered by some events or user actions on the React app.

State empowers React to change and update the display or behavior of each component.

The dynamic and interactive properties of the React app are therefore dependent on the capability of each component to remember the data they have and the changes affecting such data.

It's like thinking of changing the color of a building, and the way of doing that is by instructing each brick to achieve this.

A brief explanation of Props.

Props, short for properties, facilitate the communication between different React components. By enabling the passing of data or information across components. The data are passed as arguments. Similar to the use of attributes in HTML or the passing of arguments in javascript functions.

Props in react move unidirectionally from the parent to the child component. The child component cannot modify the passed data. Using Props is also important in making components reusable and interactive.

Differences between State and Props.

The difference is as follows;

Management

• State: Manages data only within a component.
• Props: Manages data passed from parent to child component; this enables communication between them.

Scope and Access

• State: The data is only available and accessible to the component within which it has been declared. It cannot be accessible by another component unless passed as props. So the data is private.
• Props: Allows only the availability of data in a parent-to-child direction.

Mutability

• State: State is mutable. The data can be modified by the component, and this causes React to be re-rendered.
• Props: Props are read-only and not mutable. Once the child component receives the data, it cannot modify it.

React Hooks and State

React has several hooks, but we are only going to talk about the useState hook, which helps in the management of state in React.

So, what are hooks? Hooks are functions used by React functional components. They are used to access and manage state and react lifecycle behaviors in React functional components effortlessly and more simply.

So basically, they allow you to "hook into '' React state and lifecycle in functional components without writing class components.

The useState hook helps access and manage state in functional components.

This hook takes an initial value and then returns an array with two elements that is, the current state and the "setState" function that updates the state.

Let's look at an example to explain state and the use of the useState hook.

import React, { useState } from 'react';

function Counter() {

// Declare a state variable named "count" with an initial value of 0

const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

      return (

        <div>

          <p>Count: {count}</p>

          <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>

        </div>

      );

   }

Here, in the example we see the counter state is initialized to 0 by "count" and then the "setCount" function is provided alongside to update the state, thus causing React to re-render with the updated count displayed. Therefore, whenever the button is clicked the state gets updated and the new count is displayed.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, state plays a pivotal role in the response of react components to users' events or activities. Thus making React applications more responsive. This helps react developers manage data or information and also display them.

We made a distinction between state and props. We got to understand that State is private to each component and the data is personal and cannot be passed to other components except as props. While props can be passed to another component, that is the child component(s).

We also got introduced to how to manage state in React by using React hooks - the useState, which offers a more easy approach to handling state in functional components, better than the class components.

In essence, understanding of state empowers React developers to create dynamic and interactive web applications.

Don't worry. As you drive deeper into the world of React and build more on your knowledge, a better understanding of state will enable you to build responsive interfaces.

There are other ways to manage state in React and they include using the useReducer hooks or a third-party library the Redux Toolkit.

NB: The complexity of our app determines how to manage the state. Happy coding champs!