React.js is a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It allows developers to create reusable components and efficiently update and render them in response to user interactions.
React created as a JavaScript library that allows integration with many exciting components. Interestingly, React as a library also allows developers to create their own components and share them with other developers. As UI (user interface) is an integral ingredient in app development, React is useful for UI developers determining enhanced user experiences and efficacy. Thus, React is useful for creating exceptional UI, leveraging complex UI to component-based UI. It further allows developers to utilize the small UI components for development to React native iOS and Android applications.
While it offers many benefits, it’s important to follow best practices to ensure a smooth and efficient development process.
As we discuss the advantages of React, now let’s check some of the most fundamental React best practices to follow in 2022:
1. Keep Components Small and Reusable
One of the key best practices in React is to keep your components small and focused. This means breaking down complex components into smaller, more modular pieces. This not only helps with readability and maintainability, but it also allows for better reuse and testing of individual components.
2. Use Functional Components
Another important practice is to use functional components wherever possible. These are components that are defined as a function, rather than a class. Functional components are simpler, easier to test, and can often be optimized for performance by React’s virtual DOM. With react v16.8 react introduced hooks. Hooks let you use state and other React features without writing a class. You can also build your own Hooks to share reusable stateful logic between components.
3. Keep State at lowest possible level
It’s also important to properly manage your component state. In React, state is an object that holds the values that determine a component’s behavior and render data to the user. Mismanaging state can lead to unexpected behavior and unnecessary re-renders. To avoid this, try to keep your state as simple as possible and avoid storing complex data structures in it. Also you should keep state at lowest possible level as updating state will trigger rerender for entire subtree from that component. If you are storing data at global level you should use reselect for state memoization or you can also use useSelector hook from react-redux v7.1.0 and react react v18.3.0.
4. Avoid index as key in list
Another best practice is to avoid using index keys in your lists. In React, it’s common to render a list of items using the map() function. However, using the index as the key can lead to inefficient updates and re-renders. Instead, try to use a unique identifier for each item in the list. Using index as key can lead to some functional issues also if you are rendering some interactive component like an input as list item.
5. Organize components into logical folders
Lastly, it’s important to properly structure your React application. This means organizing your components into logical folders, keeping your file and folder names consistent, and using descriptive names for your components. This will help with readability and maintainability as application grows and number of components increase, and make it easier for others to understand and work with your code.
In summary, following best practices in React can help ensure a smooth and efficient development process. This includes keeping components small and focused, using functional components, properly managing state, avoiding index keys in lists, and properly structuring your application. By following these practices, you can create scalable and maintainable React applications.
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