React Hooks Patterns Skill

Overview

Master React Hooks patterns including built-in hooks (useState, useEffect, useContext, useReducer, useCallback, useMemo) and custom hook development for reusable logic.

Learning Objectives

• Understand all built-in React Hooks
• Create custom hooks for code reuse
• Implement advanced hook patterns
• Optimize performance with hooks
• Handle side effects effectively

Core Hooks

useState

const [state, setState] = useState(initialValue);

// Lazy initialization for expensive computations
const [state, setState] = useState(() => expensiveComputation());

// Functional updates when state depends on previous value
setState(prev => prev + 1);

useEffect

useEffect(() => {
  // Side effect code
  const subscription = api.subscribe();

  // Cleanup function
  return () => {
    subscription.unsubscribe();
  };
}, [dependencies]); // Dependency array

useContext

const value = useContext(MyContext);

// Best practice: Create custom hook
function useMyContext() {
  const context = useContext(MyContext);
  if (!context) {
    throw new Error('useMyContext must be within Provider');
  }
  return context;
}

useReducer

const [state, dispatch] = useReducer(reducer, initialState);

function reducer(state, action) {
  switch (action.type) {
    case 'INCREMENT':
      return { count: state.count + 1 };
    case 'DECREMENT':
      return { count: state.count - 1 };
    default:
      return state;
  }
}

useCallback

const memoizedCallback = useCallback(
  () => {
    doSomething(a, b);
  },
  [a, b], // Dependencies
);

useMemo

const memoizedValue = useMemo(
  () => computeExpensiveValue(a, b),
  [a, b]
);

useRef

const ref = useRef(initialValue);

// DOM access
const inputRef = useRef(null);
<input ref={inputRef} />
inputRef.current.focus();

// Mutable value that doesn't trigger re-render
const countRef = useRef(0);

Custom Hooks Library

useFetch

function useFetch(url) {
  const [data, setData] = useState(null);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
  const [error, setError] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    let cancelled = false;

    fetch(url)
      .then(res => res.json())
      .then(data => {
        if (!cancelled) {
          setData(data);
          setLoading(false);
        }
      })
      .catch(err => {
        if (!cancelled) {
          setError(err);
          setLoading(false);
        }
      });

    return () => {
      cancelled = true;
    };
  }, [url]);

  return { data, loading, error };
}

useLocalStorage

function useLocalStorage(key, initialValue) {
  const [storedValue, setStoredValue] = useState(() => {
    try {
      const item = window.localStorage.getItem(key);
      return item ? JSON.parse(item) : initialValue;
    } catch (error) {
      return initialValue;
    }
  });

  const setValue = (value) => {
    try {
      const valueToStore = value instanceof Function ? value(storedValue) : value;
      setStoredValue(valueToStore);
      window.localStorage.setItem(key, JSON.stringify(valueToStore));
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(error);
    }
  };

  return [storedValue, setValue];
}

useDebounce

function useDebounce(value, delay) {
  const [debouncedValue, setDebouncedValue] = useState(value);

  useEffect(() => {
    const handler = setTimeout(() => {
      setDebouncedValue(value);
    }, delay);

    return () => {
      clearTimeout(handler);
    };
  }, [value, delay]);

  return debouncedValue;
}

usePrevious

function usePrevious(value) {
  const ref = useRef();

  useEffect(() => {
    ref.current = value;
  }, [value]);

  return ref.current;
}

useToggle

function useToggle(initialValue = false) {
  const [value, setValue] = useState(initialValue);

  const toggle = useCallback(() => {
    setValue(v => !v);
  }, []);

  return [value, toggle];
}

useOnClickOutside

function useOnClickOutside(ref, handler) {
  useEffect(() => {
    const listener = (event) => {
      if (!ref.current || ref.current.contains(event.target)) {
        return;
      }
      handler(event);
    };

    document.addEventListener('mousedown', listener);
    document.addEventListener('touchstart', listener);

    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener('mousedown', listener);
      document.removeEventListener('touchstart', listener);
    };
  }, [ref, handler]);
}

Practice Exercises

1. Counter with useReducer: Build a counter using useReducer instead of useState
2. Theme Context: Create a theme switcher using useContext
3. Data Fetching: Implement useFetch with caching
4. Form Handler: Create useForm custom hook for form state management
5. Window Size Hook: Build useWindowSize hook for responsive layouts
6. Intersection Observer: Create useInView hook for lazy loading
7. Timer Hook: Build useInterval and useTimeout hooks

Common Patterns

Fetching with Abort

function useFetchWithAbort(url) {
  const [state, setState] = useState({ data: null, loading: true, error: null });

  useEffect(() => {
    const abortController = new AbortController();

    fetch(url, { signal: abortController.signal })
      .then(res => res.json())
      .then(data => setState({ data, loading: false, error: null }))
      .catch(err => {
        if (err.name !== 'AbortError') {
          setState({ data: null, loading: false, error: err });
        }
      });

    return () => abortController.abort();
  }, [url]);

  return state;
}

Combining Multiple Hooks

function useAuthenticatedApi(url) {
  const { token } = useAuth();
  const { data, loading, error } = useFetch(url, {
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${token}`
    }
  });

  return { data, loading, error };
}

Best Practices

1. Name custom hooks with "use" prefix
2. Extract reusable logic into custom hooks
3. Keep hooks at component top level (no conditionals)
4. Use ESLint plugin for hooks rules
5. Document custom hook dependencies
6. Test custom hooks with @testing-library/react-hooks

Resources

• React Hooks API Reference
• useHooks.com - Collection of custom hooks
• React Hooks Cheatsheet

Assessment

Can you:

• Explain when to use each built-in hook?
• Create custom hooks for reusable logic?
• Handle cleanup in useEffect properly?
• Optimize with useCallback and useMemo?
• Manage complex state with useReducer?
• Build a custom hook library for your project?

Unit Test Template

// __tests__/useCustomHook.test.js
import { renderHook, act, waitFor } from '@testing-library/react';
import { useCustomHook } from '../useCustomHook';

describe('useCustomHook', () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    jest.clearAllMocks();
  });

  it('should initialize with default state', () => {
    const { result } = renderHook(() => useCustomHook());
    expect(result.current.state).toBe(initialValue);
  });

  it('should handle async operations', async () => {
    const { result } = renderHook(() => useCustomHook());

    await act(async () => {
      await result.current.asyncAction();
    });

    await waitFor(() => {
      expect(result.current.loading).toBe(false);
    });
  });

  it('should cleanup on unmount', () => {
    const cleanup = jest.fn();
    const { unmount } = renderHook(() => useCustomHook({ onCleanup: cleanup }));

    unmount();
    expect(cleanup).toHaveBeenCalled();
  });
});

Retry Logic Pattern

function useRetryAsync(asyncFn, options = {}) {
  const { maxRetries = 3, backoff = 1000 } = options;
  const [state, setState] = useState({ data: null, error: null, loading: false });

  const execute = useCallback(async (...args) => {
    setState(s => ({ ...s, loading: true, error: null }));
    let lastError;

    for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
      try {
        const data = await asyncFn(...args);
        setState({ data, error: null, loading: false });
        return data;
      } catch (error) {
        lastError = error;
        if (attempt < maxRetries) {
          await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, backoff * Math.pow(2, attempt)));
        }
      }
    }

    setState({ data: null, error: lastError, loading: false });
    throw lastError;
  }, [asyncFn, maxRetries, backoff]);

  return { ...state, execute };
}

Version: 2.0.0 Last Updated: 2025-12-30 SASMP Version: 2.0.0 Difficulty: Intermediate Estimated Time: 2-3 weeks Prerequisites: React Fundamentals Changelog: Added retry patterns, test templates, and observability hooks