8 React Best Practices Web Developers Must Follow in 2023

If you are a frontend developer and want to develop highly engaging User Interfaces for apps, React is a must have toolkit in your backpack. ReactJS is a JavaScript open source library used to create interactive frontends for different apps/softwares. However, implementing this list of React best practices will help your React code to get into shape and avoid inaccuracies.

Here, we will discuss more about reactjs best practices that developers should follow for easy react development. Though Reactjs is easy to use and understand, the code complexity increases with the project size. Hence, following best practices helps in easy maintenance of the code. Let’s discuss 8 primary React js best practices now!

React Best Practices to follow in every React project

React is the second best frontend framework according to Stackoverflow developers survey 2022. Though React is popular for its easy learning curve, if developers do not implement React practices, coding can be troublesome to handle. Let’s see which are the primary practices to follow:

• File Organization
• Learn important concepts of JavaScript
• Keep components function specific and small
• Don’t Use Indexes as a Key Prop
• Choose Fragments rather than Divs Where Possible
• Naming Convention
• Initialize Component State Without Class Constructor
• DRY your code- avoid duplicating the code

Let’s learn more about each practice.

Meaningful File Organisation

Files that have similar purposes and are made for functioning for any specific feature should be kept in the same place. For instance, all the files, including styling files that relate to any one component should be in the same place.

This practice makes it easy for the developers to find related things at one place. So they don’t have to run around the whole project searching for a particular file. No worries how big the project size gets, the file will always be found at its desired location.

It’s just that simple funda- Place the files in related locations to make navigation easier.

Learn important concepts of JavaScript

If you know a bit of fundamental JavaScript, you can hop right into React. But in order to operate effectively, you must comprehend a few key JavaScript ideas.

There are two key JS ideas you should know and understand:

IIFE

Its name is an acronym for ‘Immediately Invoked Function Expression’. It’s the method that is used as soon as it is generated.

MVC Architecture

This pattern is utilised by practically all computer languages, not just JavaScript. Although it doesn’t go by the term MVC, it’s a common idea to divide your code into three layers like data, view, and logic and treat each one individually.

Other than these two concepts there are a lot of things in JS to master before hopping into React. If the developer is a pro in JavaScript, learning React is quite simple and easy.

Keep components function specific and small

As we know, React allows for the creation of large components that can carry out numerous functions. However, keeping components small is a preferable method for structuring them so that each one serves a single function. A single component must ideally display a particular portion of your webpage or alter a specific activity. There are numerous benefits to this:

• The ability for function-specific components to stand alone facilitates monitoring & maintenance.
• Every little component could be utilised in many projects.
• The audience may be given access to components performing generic functions.
• Speed enhancements are simpler to apply with smaller components.
• Ultimately, smaller components are simpler to update.
• Larger components must work harder and could be more challenging to maintain.
• Each organisation may strike a different balance between producing a single, succinct component and numerous function-specific components.
• And anyway, you aren’t limited to a certain number of components; anyone can use several components and reassemble them anyway you choose to produce the same outcome.

Don’t Use Indexes as a Key Prop

To uniquely identify each item inside an array, React utilises keys. React can identify which piece in the array has indeed been modified, inserted, or removed using keys.

When displaying arrays, you may frequently use the index as the array key.

const Items = () => {
const arr = ["React", "Angular", "Node", "Vue", "Ember"];
return (
<>
{arr.map((elem, index) => {
<li key={index}>{elem}</li>;
})}
</>
);
};

While sometimes this works, using the index as key can create issues if the list of things expectedly changes. Consider the below list:

const arr = ["React", "Angular", "Node", "Vue", "Ember"];

Currently, the first item in the list, “React” has index zero, but if anyone adds another item in the beginning of this list, then the “React” index changes to 1 that also changes the behaviour of the array.

To guarantee that the identification of the arraylist is retained, the approach is to employ a unique value for the index.

Choose Fragments rather than Divs Where Possible

The code returned by React components must be contained in a single element, most frequently a div tag or a React fragment. When feasible, choose snippets instead of whole sentences.

Using <div> expands the DOM, particularly in large applications because the more DOM nodes or tags your site has, the more storage it requires and the additional energy a browser must invest to load it. This causes a slower website load time and a possible worse user experience.

Avoiding using <div> tags when delivering a single component is indeed an excellent example of doing away with superfluous <div> tags.

const Button1 = () => {
return <button>View Output</button>;
};

Naming Convention

In React, the following 3 naming conventions are generally regarded as best practices.

Component names should reflect their role rather than a specific app feature, and they should be capitalised in camelCase as well.

Keys requiring elements should be distinct, and non-random identifiers.  It is recommended to utilise more than just indices as keys. It is acceptable to have a key allocation that combines two distinct object characteristics.

The key’s primary function is to hold essential data so that React could understand what has happened in the app.

key={button.operation + button.buttonLabel}

Methods shouldn’t be application-specific, and should be named for its purpose and function that too in camelCase. Components must be titled for their purpose rather than their function in the project, and are generally written in PascalCase.

Initializing Component State Without Class Constructor

In React, developers are seen initialising the component state using a class constructor. Following this practice is not bad, but it may increase redundancy in the code that will ultimately affect the performance of the app.

Here are the examples of code with constructor and without constructor:

Using Constructor

import React from 'react'
class MyComponent1 extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
// Initialize component State
this.state = {
count: 0
}
}
...
}

Using Class

import React from 'react'
class MyComponent1 extends React.Component {
// Initialize component State
state = {
count: 0
}
...
}

DRY your code- avoid duplicating the code

DRY means Don’t Repeat Yourself and avoid writing duplicate code whose purpose is same.

Code should always be as simple and to the point as feasible. This is also true because React best practices advise you to write concise, accurate code.

This can be done by looking for trends and superficial similarities inside the code. If you discover any, it’s probable that you’re duplicating code and that there’s room to do away with overlap. Most certainly, a little rewriting would make it clearer. This largely depends on React’s reusability concept.

Final Words

These are 8 React best practices that developers shouldn’t avoid. To know more about such practices, stay tuned with us.

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Author Bio:

Nimisha Kapadia is the Technical head of Smarsh Infotech – an emerging custom software development company rel= “no follow”  that offers mobile app development, web app development, dedicated developers, and software testing service at a competitive price. Her bold leadership and foresight have taken the company to great heights. She loves to read and share her insights on the tech industry.