Executing async code on update of state with react-hooks

Question

I have something like:

const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);

...

setLoading(true);
doSomething(); // <--- when here, loading is still false. 

Setting state is still async, so what's the best way to wait for this setLoading() call to be finished?

The setLoading() doesn't seem to accept a callback like setState() used to.

an example

class-based

getNextPage = () => {
    // This will scroll back to the top, and also trigger the prefetch for the next page on the way up.
    goToTop();

    if (this.state.pagesSeen.includes(this.state.page + 1)) {
      return this.setState({
        page: this.state.page + 1,
      });
    }

    if (this.state.prefetchedOrders) {
      const allOrders = this.state.orders.concat(this.state.prefetchedOrders);
      return this.setState({
        orders: allOrders,
        page: this.state.page + 1,
        pagesSeen: [...this.state.pagesSeen, this.state.page + 1],
        prefetchedOrders: null,
      });
    }

    this.setState(
      {
        isLoading: true,
      },
      () => {
        getOrders({
          page: this.state.page + 1,
          query: this.state.query,
          held: this.state.holdMode,
          statuses: filterMap[this.state.filterBy],
        })
          .then((o) => {
            const { orders } = o.data;
            const allOrders = this.state.orders.concat(orders);
            this.setState({
              orders: allOrders,
              isLoading: false,
              page: this.state.page + 1,
              pagesSeen: [...this.state.pagesSeen, this.state.page + 1],
              // Just in case we're in the middle of a prefetch.
              prefetchedOrders: null,
            });
          })
          .catch(e => console.error(e.message));
      },
    );
  };

convert to function-based

  const getNextPage = () => {
    // This will scroll back to the top, and also trigger the prefetch for the next page on the way up.
    goToTop();

    if (pagesSeen.includes(page + 1)) {
      return setPage(page + 1);
    }

    if (prefetchedOrders) {
      const allOrders = orders.concat(prefetchedOrders);
      setOrders(allOrders);
      setPage(page + 1);
      setPagesSeen([...pagesSeen, page + 1]);
      setPrefetchedOrders(null);
      return;
    }

    setIsLoading(true);

    getOrders({
      page: page + 1,
      query: localQuery,
      held: localHoldMode,
      statuses: filterMap[filterBy],
    })
      .then((o) => {
        const { orders: fetchedOrders } = o.data;
        const allOrders = orders.concat(fetchedOrders);

        setOrders(allOrders);
        setPage(page + 1);
        setPagesSeen([...pagesSeen, page + 1]);
        setPrefetchedOrders(null);
        setIsLoading(false);
      })
      .catch(e => console.error(e.message));
  };

In the above, we want to run each setWhatever call sequentially. Does this mean we need to set up many different useEffect hooks to replicate this behavior?

Answer 1

you can create a async state hooks

const useAsyncState = initialState => {
  const [state, setState] = useState(initialState);

  const asyncSetState = value => {
    return new Promise(resolve => {
      setState(value);
      setState((current) => {
        resolve(current);
        return current;
      });
    });
  };

  return [state, asyncSetState];
};

then

const [loading, setLoading] = useAsyncState(false)

const submit = async () => {
  await setLoading(true)
  dosomething() 
}

Answer 2

Pass a function to the setter instead of value!

instead of giving a new value to the setter directly, pass it an arrow function that takes the current state value and returns the new value.

it will force it to chain the state updates and after it's done with all of them, it will rerender the component.

const [counter, setCounter] = useState(0);

const incrementCount = () => {
    setCounter( (counter) => { return counter + 1 } )
}

now every time incrementCount is called, it will increase the count by one and it will no longer be stuck at 1.

Answer 3

Created a custom useState hook which works similar to the normal useState hook except that the state updater function for this custom hook takes a callback that will be executed after the state is updated and component rerendered.

Typescript Solution

import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';

type OnUpdateCallback<T> = (s: T) => void;
type SetStateUpdaterCallback<T> = (s: T) => T;
type SetStateAction<T> = (newState: T | SetStateUpdaterCallback<T>, callback?: OnUpdateCallback<T>) => void;

export function useCustomState<T>(init: T): [T, SetStateAction<T>];
export function useCustomState<T = undefined>(init?: T): [T | undefined, SetStateAction<T | undefined>];
export function useCustomState<T>(init: T): [T, SetStateAction<T>] {
    const [state, setState] = useState<T>(init);
    const cbRef = useRef<OnUpdateCallback<T>>();

    const setCustomState: SetStateAction<T> = (newState, callback?): void => {
        cbRef.current = callback;
        setState(newState);
    };

    useEffect(() => {
        if (cbRef.current) {
            cbRef.current(state);
        }
        cbRef.current = undefined;
    }, [state]);

    return [state, setCustomState];
}

Javascript solution

import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';

export function useCustomState(init) {
    const [state, setState] = useState(init);
    const cbRef = useRef();

    const setCustomState = (newState, callback) => {
        cbRef.current = callback;
        setState(newState);
    };

    useEffect(() => {
        if (cbRef.current) {
            cbRef.current(state);
        }
        cbRef.current = undefined;
    }, [state]);

    return [state, setCustomState];
}

Usage

const [state, setState] = useCustomState(myInitialValue);
...
setState(myNewValueOrStateUpdaterCallback, () => {
   // Function called after state update and component rerender
})

Answer 4

I have a suggestion for this.

You could possibly use a React Ref to store the state of the state variable. Then update the state variable with the react ref. This will render a page refresh, and then use the React Ref in the async function.

const stateRef = React.useRef().current
const [state,setState] = useState(stateRef);

async function some() {
  stateRef = { some: 'value' }
  setState(stateRef) // Triggers re-render
  
  await some2();
}

async function some2() {
  await someHTTPFunctionCall(stateRef.some)
  stateRef = null;
  setState(stateRef) // Triggers re-render
}

Answer 5

useState setter doesn't provide a callback after state update is done like setState does in React class components. In order to replicate the same behaviour, you can make use of the a similar pattern like componentDidUpdate lifecycle method in React class components with useEffect using Hooks

useEffect hooks takes the second parameter as an array of values which React needs to monitor for change after the render cycle is complete.

const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);

...

useEffect(() => {
    doSomething(); // This is be executed when `loading` state changes
}, [loading])
setLoading(true);

EDIT

Unlike setState, the updater for useState hook doesn't have a callback, but you can always use a useEffect to replicate the above behaviour. However you need to determine the loading change

The functional approach to your code would look like

function usePrevious(value) {
  const ref = useRef();
  useEffect(() => {
    ref.current = value;
  });
  return ref.current;
}

---

const prevLoading = usePrevious(isLoading);

useEffect(() => {
   if (!prevLoading && isLoading) {
       getOrders({
          page: page + 1,
          query: localQuery,
          held: localHoldMode,
          statuses: filterMap[filterBy],
      })
      .then((o) => {
        const { orders: fetchedOrders } = o.data;
        const allOrders = orders.concat(fetchedOrders);

        setOrders(allOrders);
        setPage(page + 1);
        setPagesSeen([...pagesSeen, page + 1]);
        setPrefetchedOrders(null);
        setIsLoading(false);
      })
      .catch(e => console.error(e.message));
   }
}, [isLoading, preFetchedOrders, orders, page, pagesSeen]);

const getNextPage = () => {
    // This will scroll back to the top, and also trigger the prefetch for the next page on the way up.
    goToTop();

    if (pagesSeen.includes(page + 1)) {
      return setPage(page + 1);
    }

    if (prefetchedOrders) {
      const allOrders = orders.concat(prefetchedOrders);
      setOrders(allOrders);
      setPage(page + 1);
      setPagesSeen([...pagesSeen, page + 1]);
      setPrefetchedOrders(null);
      return;
    }

    setIsLoading(true);
  };

Answer 6

Wait until your component re-render.

const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);

useEffect(() => {
    if (loading) {
        doSomething();
    }
}, [loading]);

setLoading(true);

You can improve clarity with something like:

function doSomething() {
  // your side effects
  // return () => {  }
}

function useEffectIf(condition, fn) {
  useEffect(() => condition && fn(), [condition])
}

function App() {
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
  useEffectIf(loading, doSomething)

  return (
    <>
      <div>{loading}</div>
      <button onClick={() => setLoading(true)}>Click Me</button>
    </>
  );
}