React State Management

Comprehensive guide to state management patterns in React applications.

Local Component State

// Simple local state
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>;
}

Lifting State Up

function Parent() {
  const [sharedValue, setSharedValue] = useState('');

  return (
    <>
      <ChildA value={sharedValue} onChange={setSharedValue} />
      <ChildB value={sharedValue} />
    </>
  );
}

Context API

const AppContext = createContext();

function AppProvider({ children }) {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null);
  const [theme, setTheme] = useState('light');

  const value = {
    user,
    theme,
    setUser,
    setTheme
  };

  return <AppContext.Provider value={value}>{children}</AppContext.Provider>;
}

function useApp() {
  const context = useContext(AppContext);
  if (!context) throw new Error('useApp must be within AppProvider');
  return context;
}

Redux Toolkit

// Store setup
import { configureStore, createSlice } from '@reduxjs/toolkit';

const counterSlice = createSlice({
  name: 'counter',
  initialState: { value: 0 },
  reducers: {
    increment: state => { state.value += 1; },
    decrement: state => { state.value -= 1; },
    incrementByAmount: (state, action) => {
      state.value += action.payload;
    }
  }
});

export const { increment, decrement, incrementByAmount } = counterSlice.actions;

const store = configureStore({
  reducer: {
    counter: counterSlice.reducer
  }
});

// Component usage
import { useSelector, useDispatch } from 'react-redux';

function Counter() {
  const count = useSelector(state => state.counter.value);
  const dispatch = useDispatch();

  return (
    <div>
      <p>{count}</p>
      <button onClick={() => dispatch(increment())}>+</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Zustand

import create from 'zustand';

const useStore = create((set) => ({
  count: 0,
  increment: () => set((state) => ({ count: state.count + 1 })),
  decrement: () => set((state) => ({ count: state.count - 1 })),
  reset: () => set({ count: 0 })
}));

function Counter() {
  const { count, increment, decrement } = useStore();

  return (
    <div>
      <p>{count}</p>
      <button onClick={increment}>+</button>
      <button onClick={decrement}>-</button>
    </div>
  );
}

TanStack Query (React Query)

import { useQuery, useMutation, useQueryClient } from '@tanstack/react-query';

function Users() {
  const queryClient = useQueryClient();

  // Fetch data
  const { data, isLoading, error } = useQuery({
    queryKey: ['users'],
    queryFn: () => fetch('/api/users').then(res => res.json())
  });

  // Mutation
  const mutation = useMutation({
    mutationFn: (newUser) => fetch('/api/users', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: JSON.stringify(newUser)
    }),
    onSuccess: () => {
      queryClient.invalidateQueries(['users']);
    }
  });

  if (isLoading) return <div>Loading...</div>;
  if (error) return <div>Error: {error.message}</div>;

  return (
    <div>
      {data.map(user => <div key={user.id}>{user.name}</div>)}
      <button onClick={() => mutation.mutate({ name: 'New User' })}>
        Add User
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

Questions & Answers