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Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at Medium

useActionState — A New Hook in React 🎉

Hello Developers 👋,

It’s me your friend Md Taqui Imam, and today I’m going to explain a new and exciting hook in React called useActionState.

Follow me in Github⭐

What is useActionState?

useActionState is a new React hook that helps us update state based on the result of a form action.

It’s like a smart helper that remembers things for us and can change them when we submit a form.

Checkout Official Documentation🚀

Important Note: Right now, useActionState is only available in React’s Canary and experimental channels. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to use a framework that supports React Server Components.

How to use useActionState?

To use this hook, we first need to import it from React:

import { useActionState } from 'react';
Then, we can use it in our component like this:

const [state, formAction, isPending] = useActionState(actionFunction, initialState);
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Here’s what each part means:

‘state’ is our current form state
‘formAction’ is a new action we’ll use in our form
‘actionFunction’ is the function that runs when the form is submitted
‘initialState’ is the starting value of our state

When to use useActionState:

Use this hook when you want to update state based on form submissions, especially if you’re using Server Components and want quicker responses.

Example:

Let’s make a simple counter form using useActionState:

import { useActionState } from "react";

async function increment(previousState, formData) {
  return previousState + 1;
}

function StatefulForm() {
  const [state, formAction] = useActionState(increment, 0);
  return (
    <form>
      {state}
      <button formAction={formAction}>Increment</button>
    </form>
  );
}
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In this example, every time we click the button, our count goes up by one. The useActionState hook takes care of updating the state when the form is submitted.

For More Detail and example checkout this video 👇

useActionState - The Most Important New Hook in React / Next.js in 2024 (Server Actions) - YouTube

👉 Check out Semaphor: https://semaphor.cloud (paid sponsorship)Disclaimer: this is a sponsored video (paid). It's your responsibility to evaluate safety, ac...

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That’s it 😅

Remember, the best way to learn is by doing.

So when useActionState becomes more widely available, give it a try in your projects and see how it can improve your forms!

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Don't forget to checkout my new article 🫡

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Happy coding!


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Top comments (23)

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sfritsch09 profile image
Sebastian Fritsch • Edited

It is definitely nice to use server actions and useActionState, but I still like more control over validation and still prefer Formik + Yup combo. To be honest, the end user doesn't care at the end and cannot tell the difference 👨🏼‍💻

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random_ti profile image
Random

Thanks for you suggestions 🫡

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adesoji1 profile image
Adesoji1

What's the difference between useactionstate and use effect

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random_ti profile image
Random

Both useActionState and useEffect are hooks in React, but they serve different purposes and are used in different scenarios

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇 • Edited

Just like salt and mackerel. They both are edible "things" used in different scenarios 😅

What I really meant is...

AI generated response

that we should get back the "get a life" trend but with people that use AI for everything while trying to hide it. stop it. It's sad. If that wasn't enough its even more easy to spot AI generated text than it is to spot SEO directed content written by humans.

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coderamrin profile image
Amrin

😂😂 too good

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digvijay25182316 profile image
Digvijay25182316 • Edited

useActionState : For Form Mutations.
useEffect : lifecycle hook to control components state

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random_ti profile image
Random

🙌

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webjose profile image
José Pablo Ramírez Vargas

So React keeps on piling up things on top of things. Poor React devs, having to keep up with this hot mess.

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random_ti profile image
Random

😅😅

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devluc profile image
Devluc

Great article Taqui. I enjoyed learning from it

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random_ti profile image
Random

Thanks Lucian 👏

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sanzuke profile image
Muhammad Hasanudin

nice share 😃👍🏻

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random_ti profile image
Random

Happy to hear that you liked it 😊

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gopalhb profile image
gopal keshri hb
get your code
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random_ti profile image
Random

😅

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syedmuhammadaliraza profile image
Syed Muhammad Ali Raza

Thanks for Sharing

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random_ti profile image
Random

Happy to hear you liked it 🥰

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phoenixdahdev profile image
Phoenix

what is the major difference between this and useTransition????

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justynclark profile image
Justyn Clark

Funny how everything is trying to catch up to Remix.run / React Router 7.

This is old news 😂

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