Using the React children prop with TypeScript

Written by Ohans Emmanuel✏️

Properly typing the children prop in React can pose some difficulty at first. If you try typing them as specific JSX types, you may run into issues rendering the child components. There’s also the problem with the paradox of choice, as there are multiple available options to type the children prop. This may lead to decision fatigue.

In this article, I’ll share my recommended solutions to this, based on experience. For completeness, I’ll also share some other, arguably relevant approaches.

Jump ahead:

• Children in JSX
• Supported children types
• Using the PropsWithChildren type
• Explicitly using the ReactNode type
• Using the FunctionComponent (or FC) type
• Using the Component type for class components

Let’s get started.

Children in JSX

When you write a JSX expression with opening and closing tags, the content passed between them is referred to as their “child”.

Consider the following contrived example:

<Border> Hey, I represent the JSX children! </Border>

In this example, the literal string Hey, I represent the JSX children! refers to the child rendered within Border.

Conversely, to gain access to the content passed between JSX closing and opening tags, React passes these in a special prop: props.children

For example, Border could receive the children prop as follows:

const Border = ({children}) => {
   return <div style={{border: "1px solid red"}}>
      {children}
   </div>
}

Border accepts the children prop, then renders the children within a div with a border style of 1px solid red.

This is the basic usage of the children prop, i.e., to receive and manipulate the content passed within the opening and closing tags of a JSX expression.

Supported children types

Strictly speaking, there’s a handful of supported content types that can go within the opening and closing tags of your JSX expression. Below are some of the most used ones:

Strings

Literal strings are valid children types, as shown below:

<YourComponent> This is a valid child string </YourComponent />

Note that in YourComponent, props.children will simply be the string This is a valid child string.

JSX

You can equally pass other JSX elements as valid children. This is usually helpful when composing different nested components. Below’s an example:

<Wrapper>
  <YourFirstComponent />
  <YourSecondComponent />
</Wrapper>

It is also completely acceptable to mix children types, as shown below:

<Wrapper>
  I am a valid string child
  <YourFirstComponent />
  <YourSecondComponent />
</Wrapper>

JavaScript expressions

Expressions are equally valid children types, as shown below:

<YourFirstComponent> {myScopedVariableReference} </YourFirstComponent>

Remember that expressions in JSX are written in curly braces.

Functions

Functions are equally valid children types as shown below:

<YourFirstComponent> 
  {() => <div>{myScopedVariableReference}</div>} 
</YourFirstComponent>

As you can see, the children prop can be represented by quite a wide range of data types! Your first inclination might be to type these out manually, like so:

type Props = {
  children: string | JSX.Element | JSX.Element[] | () => JSX.Element
}

const YourComponent = ({children} : Props) => {
  return children
}

This might seem like a good idea, but it doesn’t fully represent the children prop. What about fragments, portals, and ignored render values, such as undefined, null, true, or false ?

A full representation may look something like this:

type ReactText = string | number;
type ReactChild = ReactElement | ReactText;

interface ReactNodeArray extends Array<ReactNode> {}
type ReactFragment = {} | ReactNodeArray;
type ReactNode = ReactChild | ReactFragment | ReactPortal | boolean | null | undefined;

type Props = {
  children: ReactNode
}

// source: https://github.com/DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped/blob/d076add9f29db350a19bd94c37b197729cc02f87/types/react/index.d.ts

See the extended types for ReactPortal and ReactElement. Do they look complex? There’s a good chance they do.

The point I’m trying to make is, in practice, you don’t want to type the children prop manually. Instead, I suggest using the officially supported types discussed below.

Using the PropsWithChildren type

The React.PropsWithChildren type takes your component prop and returns a union type with the children prop appropriately typed. No extra work from you needed.

In practice, here’s the definition for the PropsWithChildren type:

type PropsWithChildren<P> = P & { children?: ReactNode };

Assuming you had a component Foo with props FooProps:

type FooProps = {
  name: 'foo'
}

export const Foo = (props: FooProps) => {
    return null
}

You can go ahead and introduce the children prop as follows:

import { PropsWithChildren } from 'react'

type FooProps = {
  name: 'foo'
}

export const Foo = (props: PropsWithChildren<FooProps>) => {
    return props.children
}

When you pass PropsWithChildren to your component prop FooProps, you get the children prop internally typed.

In most cases, this is the recommended way to go about typing the children prop because it requires less boilerplate and the children prop is implicitly typed.

Explicitly using the ReactNode type

In cases where you must explicitly type the children prop, you can go ahead and use the ReactNode type.

Remember the definition for the PropsWithChildren type:

type PropsWithChildren<P> = P & { children?: ReactNode };

Instead of relying on PropsWithChildren, you can also type the children prop directly:

import { ReactNode } from 'react'

type FooProps = {
  name: 'foo'
  // look here 👇
  children: ReactNode
}

export const Foo = (props: FooProps) => {
    return props.children
}

Using the FunctionComponent (or FC) type

The FunctionComponent generic interface may also be used to appropriately type the children prop. Internally, this interface relies on PropsWithChildren.

Here’s how you’d use this:

import { FunctionComponent } from 'react'

type FooProps = {
  name: 'foo'
}

export const Foo: FunctionComponent<FooProps> = (props) => {
    return props.children
}

Note that the FC type is an alias for FunctionComponent for ease. Their usages are similar, as shown below:

import { FC } from 'react'

type FooProps = {
  name: 'foo'
}

export const Foo: FC<FooProps> = (props) => {
    return props.children
}

Using the Component type for class components

Most modern React codebases no longer use class components, except in specific use cases.

If you find yourself needing to type the children prop in a class component, leverage the Component prop, as shown below:

import { Component } from 'react'

type FooProps = {
  name: 'foo'
}

class Foo extends Component<FooProps> {
  render() {
    return this.props.children
  }
}

Similar to the FunctionComponent interface and its FC alias, the Component type automatically includes the children prop.

Conclusion

Where possible, use the PropsWithChildren type, but don’t be afraid to type the children prop directly as well, whether that’s in a class or functional component.

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