Day-34 Getting Started with React's useState Hook

Today, I learned about the useState hook in React, which is a powerful feature used to manage state in functional components. To practice what I learned, I created a simple Counter App. It helped me understand how to update and display dynamic values in a React component.

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What is useState?

The useState hook is a built-in React hook that lets you add state to your functional components.
Here’s the syntax:

const [state, setState] = useState(initialValue);

• state – the current value of the state.
• setState – a function to update the state.
• initialValue – the starting value of the state.

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My Project: A Simple Counter

Here’s the code I wrote:

import { useState } from "react";

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

  return (
    <div>
      <div className="container">
        <h1>Count: {count}</h1>
        <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>+</button>
        <button onClick={() => setCount(count - 1)}>-</button>
        <button onClick={() => setCount(0)}>Reset</button>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Counter;

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How It Works

• useState(0) initializes the count with 0.
• Clicking + calls setCount(count + 1) to increase the count.
• Clicking - decreases the count.
• The Reset button sets it back to zero using setCount(0).

Each time the state changes, React re-renders the component and shows the updated count.

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Key Takeaways

• useState helps make components dynamic and interactive.
• React updates the UI automatically when the state changes.
• Hooks can only be used inside functional components (not outside or in loops/conditions).

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Next Steps

I plan to add an input box that captures a name using useState. Here's a preview:

const [name, setName] = useState("");

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Final Thoughts

Learning useState gave me a better understanding of how React apps work behind the scenes. Small projects like this boost my confidence and help me learn React step-by-step.