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Stephanie Opala
Stephanie Opala

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What to learn before learning React

I am currently learning React( A JavaScript library) and here are a few prerequisites before diving into the JavaScript library.

BASIC HTML AND CSS
You should have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. Knowing how to write HTML sematic tags will make it easier to grasp the concepts of JSX(a JavaScript syntax extension) used in React. Besides that, you should learn how CSS is used in styling and in responsive web applications.

VERSION CONTROL(GIT AND GITHUB)
Git is an open source version control tool that lets you manage and keep track of your code and GitHub on the other hand, is a code hosting platform for version control and enables collaboration among developers.

VANILLA JAVASCRIPT
Before jumping into a JavaScript library or framework, it is a good idea to learn the vanilla JavaScript. Below is a list of JavaScript features that you should learn before learning React.

  1. General JavaScript features(variables, functions, datatypes, conditional statements e.t.c)
  2. Modern JavaScript features
    • ES6 classes
    • The new variable declaration let/const
    • Arrow functions
    • Destructuring assignment
    • Array functions especially Map and filter
    • ES6 modules
    • Asynchronous JavaScript

Happy coding!

Top comments (16)

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dali918 profile image
Dalitso Banda

would you recommend someone also know front end libraries such as bootstrap and sass or can you jump straight to react after a few projects with HTML CSS and vanilla js?

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Stephanie Opala • Edited

You can start learning React after learning HTML, CSS & vanilla JS.
The CSS frameworks/libraries usually come in handy when working on large projects as it makes development easier.
That being said, it's entirely up to you to decide when to learn them(if you want to). But it's not a prerequisite for learning React.

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dali918 profile image
Dalitso Banda

I see, Thank You!

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Nikhil Turale

hello, I am just start leaning about React. I work on HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and JavaScript already , so REACT easy to understandable for me or not. or any option for leaning React.

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Abdelaziz Tina

Hello!!
I started learning React this summer and I can say that I have a good grasp on all of its core features and I am diving deeper in it. However, a friend recommended that I need to have somewhat of vanilla JS "mastery" after I get comfy with React, he says that will make jumping between different frameworks more manageable, do you agree?

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Joshua Ouma

Great post.

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Stephanie Opala

Thanks

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epsi profile image
E.R. Nurwijayadi

Good

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Stephanie Opala

Thanks

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Le Hong Son

Good post

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Stephanie Opala

Thanks

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Stephanie Opala

Welcome

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Thecoder90__

Thank U

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Stephanie Opala

Welcome.

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SHAHNAZAR

Suggest me courses to learn node and react from scratch since m just beginner

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Stephanie Opala

There are links to React resources on this post by @tracycss that I found helpful. dev.to/tracycss/free-react-resourc...
You can also use CodeCademy Learn React path.
I don't have any links on courses to learn Node at the moment.