Solving the React Re-rendering Issue When Fetching Data

Learn how to address unwanted re-renders in `React` components while fetching data with the `fetch` API efficiently.
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Solving the React Re-rendering Issue When Fetching Data

React delivers a powerful way to build user interfaces, but sometimes developers encounter issues that can be perplexing—like dealing with frequent re-renders in a component while making API calls. In this guide, we'll explore one such problem: why does your React component keep re-rendering whenever you're fetching data? Let’s break down the challenge and offer solutions to keep your application running smoothly.

The Problem

When you create a React component that makes a data-fetching request, you might notice that the component is re-rendering more times than expected. This often happens when the component state is tied to values that keep changing on each render.

For example, consider this code snippet:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Why Is This Happening?

Dependency Changes: React's useEffect hook relies on its dependency array to determine when the function should run. Due to the data object being created anew on each render, it is seen as different, causing an endless cycle of re-renders.

Object Reference: In JavaScript, a new object is created every time the component renders. Since you are passing this object as a dependency, React thinks the value has changed.

The Solution

To resolve this issue, you need to ensure that your useEffect hook has stable dependencies that don’t change across renders. Here’s how you can optimize your code:

Step 1: Define State for stringArray

Changing the declaration of stringArray to be an internal state variable helps in managing the data fetched without causing re-renders.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Optimize the Fetch Call

Modify your useEffect dependency array to only include values that should trigger a re-fetch. Here’s the revised code:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 3: Understand The Changes

Fetching with a Stable Function: We defined an inner async function fetchData to cleanly manage the fetch process without alterations to dependencies.

Conclusion

By addressing how you define the dependencies in your useEffect and managing your state effectively with React hooks, you can significantly reduce unnecessary re-renders. This approach not only enhances the performance of your React component but also ensures a smoother user experience.

If you encounter performance issues in your React application or are continuously experiencing re-renders, it's essential to check your useEffect dependencies and the way states are managed.

Now, with this understanding and solution, you should be more equipped to tackle similar issues in your own projects. Happy coding!