When not to use Effect ?

Updating state based on props or state

When something can be calculated from the existing props or state, don’t put it in state. Instead, calculate it during rendering

function Form() {
  const [firstName, setFirstName] = useState('Taylor');
  const [lastName, setLastName] = useState('Swift');

  // 🔴 Avoid: redundant state and unnecessary Effect
  const [fullName, setFullName] = useState('');
  useEffect(() => {
    setFullName(firstName + ' ' + lastName);
  }, [firstName, lastName]);
  // ...
}

Recommended

function Form() {
  const [firstName, setFirstName] = useState('Taylor');
  const [lastName, setLastName] = useState('Swift');
  // ✅ Good: calculated during rendering
  const fullName = firstName + ' ' + lastName;
  // ...
}

Caching expensive calculations

function TodoList({ todos, filter }) {
  const [newTodo, setNewTodo] = useState('');

  // 🔴 Avoid: redundant state and unnecessary Effect
  const [visibleTodos, setVisibleTodos] = useState([]);
  useEffect(() => {
    setVisibleTodos(getFilteredTodos(todos, filter));
  }, [todos, filter]);

  // ...
}

Recommended

function TodoList({ todos, filter }) {
  const [newTodo, setNewTodo] = useState('');
  // ✅ This is fine if getFilteredTodos() is not slow.
  const visibleTodos = getFilteredTodos(todos, filter);
  // ...
}

Also Recommended

In many cases, the above code is fine! But maybe getFilteredTodos() is slow or you have a lot of todos. In that case you don’t want to recalculate getFilteredTodos() if some unrelated state variable like newTodo has changed.

You can cache (or “memoize”) an expensive calculation by wrapping it in a useMemo Hook:

import { useMemo, useState } from 'react';

function TodoList({ todos, filter }) {
  const [newTodo, setNewTodo] = useState('');
  // ✅ Does not re-run getFilteredTodos() unless todos or filter change
  const visibleTodos = useMemo(() => getFilteredTodos(todos, filter), [todos, filter]);
  // ...
}

Resetting all state when a prop changes

export default function ProfilePage({ userId }) {
  const [comment, setComment] = useState('');

  // 🔴 Avoid: Resetting state on prop change in an Effect
  useEffect(() => {
    setComment('');
  }, [userId]);
  // ...
}

This is inefficient because ProfilePage and its children will first render with the stale value, and then render again. It is also complicated because you’d need to do this in every component that has some state inside ProfilePage. For example, if the comment UI is nested, you’d want to clear out nested comment state too.

Instead, you can tell React that each user’s profile is conceptually a different profile by giving it an explicit key. Split your component in two and pass a key attribute from the outer component to the inner one:

Recommended

export default function ProfilePage({ userId }) {
  return (
    <Profile
      userId={userId}
      key={userId}
    />
  );
}

function Profile({ userId }) {
  // ✅ This and any other state below will reset on key change automatically
  const [comment, setComment] = useState('');
  // ...
}

Sharing logic between event handlers

When you’re not sure whether some code should be in an Effect or in an event handler, ask yourself why this code needs to run. Use Effects only for code that should run because the component was displayed to the user

function ProductPage({ product, addToCart }) {
  // 🔴 Avoid: Event-specific logic inside an Effect
  useEffect(() => {
    if (product.isInCart) {
      showNotification(`Added ${product.name} to the shopping cart!`);
    }
  }, [product]);

  function handleBuyClick() {
    addToCart(product);
  }

  function handleCheckoutClick() {
    addToCart(product);
    navigateTo('/checkout');
  }
  // ...
}

Recommended

function ProductPage({ product, addToCart }) {
  // ✅ Good: Event-specific logic is called from event handlers
  function buyProduct() {
    addToCart(product);
    showNotification(`Added ${product.name} to the shopping cart!`);
  }

  function handleBuyClick() {
    buyProduct();
  }

  function handleCheckoutClick() {
    buyProduct();
    navigateTo('/checkout');
  }
  // ...
}

Sending a POST request

function Form() {
  const [firstName, setFirstName] = useState('');
  const [lastName, setLastName] = useState('');

  // ✅ Good: This logic should run because the component was displayed
  useEffect(() => {
    post('/analytics/event', { eventName: 'visit_form' });
  }, []);

  // 🔴 Avoid: Event-specific logic inside an Effect
  const [jsonToSubmit, setJsonToSubmit] = useState(null);
  useEffect(() => {
    if (jsonToSubmit !== null) {
      post('/api/register', jsonToSubmit);
    }
  }, [jsonToSubmit]);

  function handleSubmit(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    setJsonToSubmit({ firstName, lastName });
  }
  // ...
}

Recommended

function Form() {
  const [firstName, setFirstName] = useState('');
  const [lastName, setLastName] = useState('');

  // ✅ Good: This logic runs because the component was displayed
  useEffect(() => {
    post('/analytics/event', { eventName: 'visit_form' });
  }, []);

  function handleSubmit(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    // ✅ Good: Event-specific logic is in the event handler
    post('/api/register', { firstName, lastName });
  }
  // ...
}

Chains of computations

function Game() {
  const [card, setCard] = useState(null);
  const [goldCardCount, setGoldCardCount] = useState(0);
  const [round, setRound] = useState(1);
  const [isGameOver, setIsGameOver] = useState(false);

  // 🔴 Avoid: Chains of Effects that adjust the state solely to trigger each other
  useEffect(() => {
    if (card !== null && card.gold) {
      setGoldCardCount(c => c + 1);
    }
  }, [card]);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (goldCardCount > 3) {
      setRound(r => r + 1)
      setGoldCardCount(0);
    }
  }, [goldCardCount]);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (round > 5) {
      setIsGameOver(true);
    }
  }, [round]);

  useEffect(() => {
    alert('Good game!');
  }, [isGameOver]);

  function handlePlaceCard(nextCard) {
    if (isGameOver) {
      throw Error('Game already ended.');
    } else {
      setCard(nextCard);
    }
  }

  // ...

Recommended

function Game() {
  const [card, setCard] = useState(null);
  const [goldCardCount, setGoldCardCount] = useState(0);
  const [round, setRound] = useState(1);

  // ✅ Calculate what you can during rendering
  const isGameOver = round > 5;

  function handlePlaceCard(nextCard) {
    if (isGameOver) {
      throw Error('Game already ended.');
    }

    // ✅ Calculate all the next state in the event handler
    setCard(nextCard);
    if (nextCard.gold) {
      if (goldCardCount <= 3) {
        setGoldCardCount(goldCardCount + 1);
      } else {
        setGoldCardCount(0);
        setRound(round + 1);
        if (round === 5) {
          alert('Good game!');
        }
      }
    }
  }

  // ...

Initializing the application

function App() {
  // 🔴 Avoid: Effects with logic that should only ever run once
  useEffect(() => {
    loadDataFromLocalStorage();
    checkAuthToken();
  }, []);
  // ...
}

Recommended

let didInit = false;

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    if (!didInit) {
      didInit = true;
      // ✅ Only runs once per app load
      loadDataFromLocalStorage();
      checkAuthToken();
    }
  }, []);
  // ...
}

Passing data to the parent

function Parent() {
  const [data, setData] = useState(null);
  // ...
  return <Child onFetched={setData} />;
}

function Child({ onFetched }) {
  const data = useSomeAPI();
  // 🔴 Avoid: Passing data to the parent in an Effect
  useEffect(() => {
    if (data) {
      onFetched(data);
    }
  }, [onFetched, data]);
  // ...
}

Recommended

function Parent() {
  const data = useSomeAPI();
  // ...
  // ✅ Good: Passing data down to the child
  return <Child data={data} />;
}

function Child({ data }) {
  // ...
}

Subscribing to an external store

function useOnlineStatus() {
  // Not ideal: Manual store subscription in an Effect
  const [isOnline, setIsOnline] = useState(true);
  useEffect(() => {
    function updateState() {
      setIsOnline(navigator.onLine);
    }

    updateState();

    window.addEventListener('online', updateState);
    window.addEventListener('offline', updateState);
    return () => {
      window.removeEventListener('online', updateState);
      window.removeEventListener('offline', updateState);
    };
  }, []);
  return isOnline;
}

function ChatIndicator() {
  const isOnline = useOnlineStatus();
  // ...
}

Recommended

Although it’s common to use Effects for this, React has a purpose-built Hook for subscribing to an external store that is preferred instead. Delete the Effect and replace it with a call to useSyncExternalStore:

function subscribe(callback) {
  window.addEventListener('online', callback);
  window.addEventListener('offline', callback);
  return () => {
    window.removeEventListener('online', callback);
    window.removeEventListener('offline', callback);
  };
}

function useOnlineStatus() {
  // ✅ Good: Subscribing to an external store with a built-in Hook
  return useSyncExternalStore(
    subscribe, // React won't resubscribe for as long as you pass the same function
    () => navigator.onLine, // How to get the value on the client
    () => true // How to get the value on the server
  );
}

function ChatIndicator() {
  const isOnline = useOnlineStatus();
  // ...
}

Fetching data

function SearchResults({ query }) {
  const [results, setResults] = useState([]);
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1);

  useEffect(() => {
    // 🔴 Avoid: Fetching without cleanup logic
    fetchResults(query, page).then(json => {
      setResults(json);
    });
  }, [query, page]);

  function handleNextPageClick() {
    setPage(page + 1);
  }
  // ...
}

Recommended

function SearchResults({ query }) {
  const [results, setResults] = useState([]);
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1);
  useEffect(() => {
    let ignore = false;
    fetchResults(query, page).then(json => {
      if (!ignore) {
        setResults(json);
      }
    });
    return () => {
      ignore = true;
    };
  }, [query, page]);

  function handleNextPageClick() {
    setPage(page + 1);
  }
  // ...
}