Chapter 4 State

React Programming
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Chapter 4 discussion

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Hello there!

Just going through the book (it’s great btw) and I am having trouble understanding what I believe is a pretty critical line (lol!):

const [selectedPostName, setSelectedPostName] = useState(‘Barry’);

I understand that the “selectedPostName” is the state variable which I am storing, and I understand that useState(‘Barry’) is the default value of the state variable.

What I am getting a bit lost on, is how setSelectedPostName (which I understand the is the function which updates my 'state variable) can be leveraged by anything (i.e. not just the Post.js component) without the function “body” being declared/specified/written out…

Is this done implicitly by the React Framework?

I hope that this question makes sense…

Thanks!

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Hi,

Glad you are enjoying the book!

The setter function (in this case called setSelectedPostName) is created by React inside the useState function.
So useState is a function that when executed, creates (and returns) another function and the current state value.
Is that helpful?

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Totally perfect… “implicitly created behind the scenes” == Magic!!!

Thanks so much, have a great weekend!

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