How to Fix Icons Not Displaying in React: A Simple Solution

If you're working on a React project and you've tried using icons but they aren't showing up, you're not alone. It’s a common issue that many React developers face. In this post, I’ll walk you through why your icons might not be displaying and how to fix it, using a super simple approach.

The Problem

Let’s say you’re using an icon library like React Icons in your React project. You add the icon to your component, but instead of seeing the icon, nothing shows up. You check your code, and everything seems fine, but the icon is still missing.

What’s happening here? 🤔

The issue is that you're passing the icon component incorrectly. In React, we need to pass components as JSX elements to render them properly.

The Cause

If you’ve done something like this:

icon: FaCode

You’re just passing a reference to the FaCode component, but you're not actually rendering it.

React doesn't know that you want to display this icon as a part of your UI. It only sees the reference to the component, and that's why nothing shows up.

The Solution

To fix this, you need to render the component inside your JSX.

Let’s say you have a services array where you store the icons and other information like this:

export const services = [
  {
    id: 1,
    title: "Frontend Development",
    icon: FaCode,  // The icon reference
    description: "I create responsive websites...",
  },
  // More services...
];

Now, when you map through your services and want to display the icons, you need to render the icon as a component. Here’s how you do it:

{services.map((service) => (
  <div key={service.id}>
    <span>
      <service.icon />  {/* This is how you render the icon */}
    </span>
    <h3>{service.title}</h3>
    <p>{service.description}</p>
  </div>
))}

Notice how we used <service.icon />? This tells React to render the icon like a normal component.

Why This Works

In React, to display a component (like FaCode), you need to treat it like a JSX element, meaning you write it as <Component />. By doing this, React knows you want it to show up in your UI.

So, instead of just passing FaCode, you're now telling React to actually render the icon by using the correct JSX syntax.

Conclusion

If your icons aren’t showing up in React, just remember to use the JSX component syntax when you’re rendering them. Instead of passing the icon component reference, call it like this:

<service.icon />

Now your icons should display perfectly! 🎉

I hope this helps you solve the issue. If you have any more questions or run into other problems, feel free to leave a comment or reach out. Happy coding! 💻

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