Removing Effect Dependencies

When you write an Effect, the linter will verify that you’ve included every reactive value (like props and state) that the Effect reads in the list of your Effect’s dependencies. This ensures that your Effect remains synchronized with the latest props and state of your component. Unnecessary dependencies may cause your Effect to run too often, or even create an infinite loop. Follow this guide to review and remove unnecessary dependencies from your Effects.

You will learn

How to fix infinite Effect dependency loops
What to do when you want to remove a dependency
How to read a value from your Effect without “reacting” to it
How and why to avoid object and function dependencies
Why suppressing the dependency linter is dangerous, and what to do instead

Dependencies should match the code

When you write an Effect, you first specify how to start and stop whatever you want your Effect to be doing:

const serverUrl = 'https://localhost:1234';

function ChatRoom({ roomId }) {
  useEffect(() => {
    const connection = createConnection(serverUrl, roomId);
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  	// ...
}

Then, if you leave the Effect dependencies empty ([]), the linter will suggest the correct dependencies:

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import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { createConnection } from './chat.js';

const serverUrl = 'https://localhost:1234';

function ChatRoom({ roomId }) {
  useEffect(() => {
    const connection = createConnection(serverUrl, roomId);
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  }, []); // <-- Fix the mistake here!
  return <h1>Welcome to the {roomId} room!</h1>;
}

export default function App() {
  const [roomId, setRoomId] = useState('general');
  return (
    <>
      <label>
        Choose the chat room:{' '}
        <select
          value={roomId}
          onChange={e => setRoomId(e.target.value)}
        >
          <option value="general">general</option>
          <option value="travel">travel</option>
          <option value="music">music</option>
        </select>
      </label>
      <hr />
      <ChatRoom roomId={roomId}