React Best Practices

Writing clean React code is crucial for maintainable applications. Here are some essential best practices.

Component Organization

Keep your components focused and single-responsibility:

// Good: Small, focused component
function UserAvatar({ name, imageUrl }) {
  return (
    <div className="avatar">
      <img src={imageUrl} alt={name} />
    </div>
  );
}

State Management

Use the right tool for the job:

• useState: Local component state
• useContext: Shared state across components
• useReducer: Complex state logic
• External libraries: For large-scale applications

Performance Optimization

Use React.memo Wisely

const ExpensiveComponent = React.memo(({ data }) => {
  // Complex rendering logic
  return <div>{/* ... */}</div>;
});

Avoid Inline Functions

// Bad
<button onClick={() => handleClick(id)}>Click</button>
 
// Good
const memoizedHandler = useCallback(() => {
  handleClick(id);
}, [id]);
 
<button onClick={memoizedHandler}>Click</button>

Key Takeaways

1. Keep components small and focused
2. Use hooks effectively
3. Optimize only when needed
4. Write tests for critical logic
5. Follow consistent naming conventions

These practices will help you build better React applications that are easier to maintain and scale.