Getting Started with React Hooks: An Introduction to Commonly Used Hooks

React Hooks are a way to add state and other React features to functional components. They were introduced in React 16.8 as a way to make stateful logic and side effects easier to manage in functional components.

Here are some of the most commonly used React Hooks:

useState

This hook lets you add a state to a functional component. It returns an array with two elements: the current state value, and a function to update the state. You can use destructuring to give names to these values, like this:

const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

useEffect

This hook lets you run a side effect (like fetching data or updating a DOM element) in response to a change in your component’s state or props. For example:

useEffect(() => {
  document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`;
}, [count]);

useContext

This hook lets you access the context data from a functional component, without having to pass the context value down through props.

useReducer

This hook lets you manage state that is more complex than a single value, by providing a way to handle multiple state updates. It’s similar to useState, but instead of using a state updater function, you pass a dispatch function that takes an action, and a reducer that decides what to do with that action.

useMemo

This hook lets you optimize performance by caching the results of expensive functions so they don’t get re-computed unnecessarily.

There are many more hooks that you can use, each designed to help you handle a specific use case. To get started with React Hooks, I recommend following the official React documentation, which provides a comprehensive guide to React Hooks and how to use them.