Design Converter
Education
Last updated on Feb 19, 2025
•5 mins read
Last updated on Feb 19, 2025
•5 mins read
Software Development Executive - II
I know who I am.
Struggling to write clean and reusable React code?
React Hooks make it easy to manage state and side effects in functional components. But without the right approach, things can get messy fast. Using the right React Hooks best practices helps keep your code simple, readable, and maintainable.
This blog covers practical tips for using built-in hooks, creating custom hooks, and handling complex logic with ease. Whether you're working with event listeners, form validation, or API calls, these best practices will help you write better React applications.
Let’s get started!
React Hooks were introduced in React 16.8 to allow functional components to manage state and side effects without using class components. Hooks in React simplify state management and encourage writing cleaner, reusable functions.
• Improve code readability and maintainability.
• Enable reusability by allowing you to create custom hooks.
• Reduce unnecessary re-renders and improve performance.
• Facilitate better organization of component logic.
There are several built-in hooks in React, including:
• useState for managing state variables.
• useEffect for handling side effects.
• useContext for accessing context values.
• useRef for interacting with the DOM.
While these built-in hooks are powerful, creating custom hooks helps extract complex logic and reuse it across multiple components efficiently.
Custom hooks offer a powerful way to reuse logic across different parts of your application. Instead of duplicating logic in multiple components, you can create custom hooks that encapsulate functionality and improve maintainability.
A custom hook is simply a JavaScript function that uses other hooks inside. It must follow the naming convention useSomething to indicate that it is a hook.
1import { useState } from "react"; 2 3function useCounter(initialValue = 0) { 4 const [count, setCount] = useState(initialValue); 5 6 const increment = () => setCount(count + 1); 7 const decrement = () => setCount(count - 1); 8 const reset = () => setCount(initialValue); 9 10 return { count, increment, decrement, reset }; 11} 12 13export default useCounter;
This useCounter hook allows you to manage a counter state variable without rewriting logic in multiple components.
1import React from "react"; 2import useCounter from "./useCounter"; 3 4function CounterComponent() { 5 const { count, increment, decrement, reset } = useCounter(0); 6 7 return ( 8 <div> 9 <h2>Count: {count}</h2> 10 <button onClick={increment}>Increase</button> 11 <button onClick={decrement}>Decrease</button> 12 <button onClick={reset}>Reset</button> 13 </div> 14 ); 15} 16 17export default CounterComponent;
By using a custom hook, you avoid repetitive logic and keep your functional component clean.
A good practice is to create custom hooks that serve a single purpose. For example, a custom hook handling API requests should not include state management for UI elements.
When using the useEffect hook, managing the dependency array properly prevents unnecessary re-renders and ensures consistent behavior.
1useEffect(() => { 2 console.log("Component Mounted"); 3}, []); // Runs only once when the component mounts
If you notice similar logic across multiple components, extract component logic into custom hooks. This improves code readability and makes testing easier.
Avoid unnecessary re-renders in React components by using useCallback for functions and useMemo for expensive calculations.
1import { useCallback } from "react"; 2 3const handleClick = useCallback(() => { 4 console.log("Button clicked"); 5}, []);
1import { useMemo } from "react"; 2 3const expensiveCalculation = useMemo(() => { 4 return computeHeavyTask(); 5}, [dependencies]);
When working with event listeners, ensure they are added and removed efficiently to prevent memory leaks.
1import { useEffect } from "react"; 2 3function useDocumentTitle(title) { 4 useEffect(() => { 5 document.title = title; 6 return () => { 7 document.title = "React App"; // Cleanup on unmount 8 }; 9 }, [title]); 10}
To keep your components clean and reusable, extract stateful logic into custom hooks. This prevents unnecessary re-renders and promotes code modularity.
1import { useState } from "react"; 2 3function useFormValidation(initialValues) { 4 const [values, setValues] = useState(initialValues); 5 6 const handleChange = (e) => { 7 setValues({ 8 ...values, 9 [e.target.name]: e.target.value, 10 }); 11 }; 12 13 return { values, handleChange }; 14}
1import React from "react"; 2import useFormValidation from "./useFormValidation"; 3 4function LoginForm() { 5 const { values, handleChange } = useFormValidation({ email: "", password: "" }); 6 7 return ( 8 <form> 9 <input type="email" name="email" value={values.email} onChange={handleChange} /> 10 <input type="password" name="password" value={values.password} onChange={handleChange} /> 11 <button type="submit">Login</button> 12 </form> 13 ); 14}
This custom hook simplifies form validation logic across multiple components.
To ensure your custom hooks work as expected, use Jest and React Testing Library to write unit tests.
1import { renderHook, act } from "@testing-library/react-hooks"; 2import useCounter from "./useCounter"; 3 4test("should increment counter", () => { 5 const { result } = renderHook(() => useCounter(0)); 6 act(() => { 7 result.current.increment(); 8 }); 9 expect(result.current.count).toBe(1); 10});
When you create custom hooks, ensure they do not depend on external variables that might change unpredictably.
Mastering React Hooks Best Practices is crucial for building scalable and maintainable React applications. By creating custom hooks, handling event listeners efficiently, and managing dependency arrays properly, you can significantly improve your React development workflow.
By following these best practices, you can extract component logic into reusable functions, optimize performance, and write cleaner, more maintainable code.
Start using these best practices today to build efficient, high-performance React components!
Tired of manually designing screens, coding on weekends, and technical debt? Let DhiWise handle it for you!
You can build an e-commerce store, healthcare app, portfolio, blogging website, social media or admin panel right away. Use our library of 40+ pre-built free templates to create your first application using DhiWise.