Lifting State Up

Often, several components need to reflect the same changing data. We recommend lifting the shared state up to their closest common ancestor. Let's see how this works in action.

In this section, we will create a temperature calculator that calculates whether the water would boil at a given temperature.

We will start with a component called BoilingVerdict. It accepts the celsius temperature as a prop, and prints whether it is enough to boil the water:

function BoilingVerdict(props) {
  if (props.celsius >= 100) {
    return <p>The water would boil.</p>;
  } else {
    return <p>The water would not boil.</p>;
  }
}

Next, we will create a component called Calculator. It renders an <input> that lets you enter the temperature, and keeps its value in this.state.value.

Additionally, it renders the BoilingVerdict for the current input value.

class Calculator extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
    this.state = {value: ''};
  }

  handleChange(e) {
    this.setState({value: e.target.value});
  }

  render() {
    const value = this.state.value;
    return (
      <fieldset>
        <legend>Enter temperature in Celsius:</legend>
        <input
          value={value}
          onChange={this.handleChange} />
        <BoilingVerdict
          celsius={parseFloat(value)} />
      </fieldset>
    );
  }
}

Try it on CodePen.

Adding a Second Input #

Our new requirement is that, in addition to a Celsius input, we provide a Fahrenheit input, and they are kept in sync.

We can start by extracting a TemperatureInput component from Calculator. We will add a new scale prop to it that can either be "c" or "f":

const scaleNames = {
  c: 'Celsius',
  f: 'Fahrenheit'
};

class TemperatureInput extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
    this.state = {value: ''};
  }

  handleChange(e) {
    this.setState({value: e.target.value});
  }

  render() {
    const value = this.state.value;
    const scale = this.props.scale;
    return (
      <fieldset>
        <legend>Enter temperature in {scaleNames[scale]}:</legend>
        <input value={value}
               onChange={this.handleChange} />
      </fieldset>
    );
  }
}

We can now change the Calculator to render two separate temperature inputs:

class Calculator extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <TemperatureInput scale="c" />
        <TemperatureInput scale="f" />
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Try it on CodePen.

We have two inputs now, but when you enter the temperature in one of them, the other doesn't update. This contradicts our requirement: we want to keep them in sync.

We also can't display the BoilingVerdict from Calculator. The Calculator doesn't know the current temperature because it is hidden inside the TemperatureInput.

Lifting State Up #

First, we will write two functions to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit and back:

function toCelsius(fahrenheit) {
  return (fahrenheit - 32) * 5 / 9;
}

function toFahrenheit(celsius) {
  return (celsius * 9 / 5) + 32;
}

These two functions convert numbers. We will write another function that takes a string value and a converter function as arguments and returns a string. We will use it to calculate the value of one input based on the other input.

It returns an empty string on an invalid value, and it keeps the output rounded to the third decimal place:

function tryConvert(value, convert) {
  const input = parseFloat(value);
  if (Number.isNaN(input)) {
    return '';
  }
  const output = convert(input);
  const rounded = Math.round(output * 1000) / 1000;
  return rounded.toString();
}

For example, tryConvert('abc', toCelsius) returns an empty string, and tryConvert('10.22', toFahrenheit) returns '50.396'.

Next, we will remove the state from TemperatureInput.

Instead, it will receive both value and the onChange handler by props:

class TemperatureInput extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
  }

  handleChange(e) {
    this.props.onChange(e.target.value);
  }

  render() {
    const value = this.props.value;
    const scale = this.props.scale;
    return (
      <fieldset>
        <legend>Enter temperature in {scaleNames[scale]}:</legend>
        <input value={value}
               onChange={this.handleChange} />
      </fieldset>
    );
  }
}

If several components need access to the same state, it is a sign that the state should be lifted up to their closest common ancestor instead. In our case, this is the Calculator. We will store the current value and scale in its state.

We could have stored the value of both inputs but it turns out to be unnecessary. It is enough to store the value of the most recently changed input, and the scale that it represents. We can then infer the value of the other input based on the current value and scale alone.

The inputs stay in sync because their values are computed from the same state:

class Calculator extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleCelsiusChange = this.handleCelsiusChange.bind(this);
    this.handleFahrenheitChange = this.handleFahrenheitChange.bind(this);
    this.state = {value: '', scale: 'c'};
  }

  handleCelsiusChange(value) {
    this.setState({scale: 'c', value});
  }

  handleFahrenheitChange(value) {
    this.setState({scale: 'f', value});
  }

  render() {
    const scale = this.state.scale;
    const value = this.state.value;
    const celsius = scale === 'f' ? tryConvert(value, toCelsius) : value;
    const fahrenheit = scale === 'c' ? tryConvert(value, toFahrenheit) : value;

    return (
      <div>
        <TemperatureInput
          scale="c"
          value={celsius}
          onChange={this.handleCelsiusChange} />
        <TemperatureInput
          scale="f"
          value={fahrenheit}
          onChange={this.handleFahrenheitChange} />
        <BoilingVerdict
          celsius={parseFloat(celsius)} />
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Try it on CodePen.

Now, no matter which input you edit, this.state.value and this.state.scale in the Calculator get updated. One of the inputs gets the value as is, so any user input is preserved, and the other input value is always recalculated based on it.

Lessons Learned #

There should be a single "source of truth" for any data that changes in a React application. Usually, the state is first added to the component that needs it for rendering. Then, if other components also need it, you can lift it up to their closest common ancestor. Instead of trying to sync the state between different components, you should rely on the top-down data flow.

Lifting state involves writing more "boilerplate" code than two-way binding approaches, but as a benefit, it takes less work to find and isolate bugs. Since any state "lives" in some component and that component alone can change it, the surface area for bugs is greatly reduced. Additionally, you can implement any custom logic to reject or transform user input.

If something can be derived from either props or state, it probably shouldn't be in the state. For example, instead of storing both celsiusValue and fahrenheitValue, we store just the last edited value and its scale. The value of the other input can always be calculated from them in the render() method. This lets us clear or apply rounding to the other field without losing any precision in the user input.

When you see something wrong in the UI, you can use React Developer Tools to inspect the props and move up the tree until you find the component responsible for updating the state. This lets you trace the bugs to their source: