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adding note about initializing state w/ props

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Jared Forsyth 11 years ago
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      tips/10-props-in-getInitialState-as-anti-pattern.md

32
tips/10-props-in-getInitialState-as-anti-pattern.md

@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
id: props-in-getInitialState-as-anti-pattern
title: Using State to Cache Calculations Is an Anti-Pattern
title: Props in getInitialState Is an Anti-Pattern
layout: tips
permalink: props-in-getInitialState-as-anti-pattern.html
prev: componentWillReceiveProps-not-triggered-after-mounting.html
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ next: dom-event-listeners.html
>
> This isn't really a React-specific tip, as such anti-patterns often occur in code in general; in this case, React simply points them out more clearly.
Using state to cache values calculated from props (for example in `getInitialState`) often leads to duplication of "source of truth", i.e. where the real data is. Whenever possible, compute values on-the-fly to ensure that they don't get out of sync later on and cause maintenance trouble.
Using props, passed down from parent, to generate state in `getInitialState` often leads to duplication of "source of truth", i.e. where the real data is (see [denormalization](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denormalization)). Whenever possible, compute values on-the-fly to ensure that they don't get out of sync later on and cause maintenance trouble. Javascript is plently fast for most use cases.
Bad example:
@ -60,3 +60,31 @@ var MessageBox = React.createClass({
React.renderComponent(<MessageBox name="Rogers"/>, mountNode);
```
**But** in situations where your component truly is stateful, using props to initialize that state is totally fine. In such cases, it can be helpful to name the prop `initialX` (or similar) to make it clear that the state will not stay in sync.
For example:
```js
/** @jsx React.DOM */
var Counter = React.createClass({
getInitialState: function() {
return {count: this.props.initialCount};
},
handleClick: function() {
this.setState({
count: this.state.count + 1
});
},
render: function() {
return (
<div onClick={this.handleClick}>
{this.state.count}
</div>
);
}
});
React.renderComponent(<Counter initialCount={7}/>, mountNode);
```

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