How to pass props to {this.props.children}

1113
votes

I'm trying to find the proper way to define some components which could be used in a generic way:

<Parent>
  <Child value="1">
  <Child value="2">
</Parent>

There is a logic going on for rendering between parent and children components of course, you can imagine <select> and <option> as an example of this logic.

This is a dummy implementation for the purpose of the question:

var Parent = React.createClass({
  doSomething: function(value) {
  },
  render: function() {
    return (<div>{this.props.children}</div>);
  }
});

var Child = React.createClass({
  onClick: function() {
    this.props.doSomething(this.props.value); // doSomething is undefined
  },
  render: function() {
    return (<div onClick={this.onClick}></div>);
  }
});

The question is whenever you use {this.props.children} to define a wrapper component, how do you pass down some property to all its children?

28
javascriptreactjsreact-jsx
I learned a lot from the answers to this question. I think the Context API is the best solution in today's React land. But if you want to use React.cloneElement, one gotcha I faced is not properly iterating the children with React.Children.map(). See more in How To Pass Props to {react.children} – Victor Ofoegbu

28 Answers

1175
votes

Cloning children with new props

You can use React.Children to iterate over the children, and then clone each element with new props (shallow merged) using React.cloneElement. For example:

const Child = ({ doSomething, value }) => (
  <button onClick={() => doSomething(value)}>Click Me</button>
);

function Parent({ children }) {
  function doSomething(value) {
    console.log("doSomething called by child with value:", value);
  }

  const childrenWithProps = React.Children.map(children, child => {
    // Checking isValidElement is the safe way and avoids a typescript
    // error too.
    if (React.isValidElement(child)) {
      return React.cloneElement(child, { doSomething });
    }
    return child;
  });

  return <div>{childrenWithProps}</div>
}

function App() {
  return (
    <Parent>
      <Child value={1} />
      <Child value={2} />
    </Parent>
  );
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById("container"));
<script src="https://unpkg.com/react@17/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@17/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>

Calling children as a function

Alternatively, you can pass props to children with render props. In this approach, the children (which can be children or any other prop name) is a function which can accept any arguments you want to pass and returns the children:

const Child = ({ doSomething, value }) => (
  <button onClick={() => doSomething(value)}>Click Me</button>
);

function Parent({ children }) {
  function doSomething(value) {
    console.log("doSomething called by child with value:", value);
  }

  // Note that children is called as a function and we can pass args to it.
  return <div>{children(doSomething)}</div>
}

function App() {
  // doSomething is the arg we passed in Parent, which
  // we now pass through to Child.
  return (
    <Parent>
      {doSomething => (
        <React.Fragment>
          <Child doSomething={doSomething} value={1} />
          <Child doSomething={doSomething} value={2} />
        </React.Fragment>
      )}
    </Parent>
  );
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById("container"));
<script src="https://unpkg.com/react@17/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@17/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>

Instead of <React.Fragment> or simply <> you can also return an array if you prefer.

460
votes

For a slightly cleaner way to do it, try:

<div>
    {React.cloneElement(this.props.children, { loggedIn: this.state.loggedIn })}
</div>

Edit: To use with multiple individual children (the child must itself be a component) you can do. Tested in 16.8.6

<div>
    {React.cloneElement(this.props.children[0], { loggedIn: true, testPropB: true })}
    {React.cloneElement(this.props.children[1], { loggedIn: true, testPropA: false })}
</div>
96
votes

Try this

<div>{React.cloneElement(this.props.children, {...this.props})}</div>

It worked for me using react-15.1.

84
votes

Pass props to direct children.

See all other answers

Pass shared, global data through the component tree via context

Context is designed to share data that can be considered “global” for a tree of React components, such as the current authenticated user, theme, or preferred language. 1

Disclaimer: This is an updated answer, the previous one used the old context API

It is based on Consumer / Provide principle. First, create your context

const { Provider, Consumer } = React.createContext(defaultValue);

Then use via

<Provider value={/* some value */}>
  {children} /* potential consumers */
</Provider>

and

<Consumer>
  {value => /* render something based on the context value */}
</Consumer>

All Consumers that are descendants of a Provider will re-render whenever the Provider’s value prop changes. The propagation from Provider to its descendant Consumers is not subject to the shouldComponentUpdate method, so the Consumer is updated even when an ancestor component bails out of the update. 1

Full example, semi-pseudo code.

import React from 'react';

const { Provider, Consumer } = React.createContext({ color: 'white' });

class App extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      value: { color: 'black' },
    };
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <Provider value={this.state.value}>
        <Toolbar />
      </Provider>
    );
  }
}

class Toolbar extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return ( 
      <div>
        <p> Consumer can be arbitrary levels deep </p>
        <Consumer> 
          {value => <p> The toolbar will be in color {value.color} </p>}
        </Consumer>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

1https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/context.html

56
votes

Passing Props to Nested Children

With the update to React 16.6 you can now use React.createContext and contextType. 

import * as React from 'react';

// React.createContext accepts a defaultValue as the first param
const MyContext = React.createContext(); 

class Parent extends React.Component {
  doSomething = (value) => {
    // Do something here with value
  };

  render() {
    return (
       <MyContext.Provider value={{ doSomething: this.doSomething }}>
         {this.props.children}
       </MyContext.Provider>
    );
  }
}

class Child extends React.Component {
  static contextType = MyContext;

  onClick = () => {
    this.context.doSomething(this.props.value);
  };      

  render() {
    return (
      <div onClick={this.onClick}>{this.props.value}</div>
    );
  }
}


// Example of using Parent and Child

import * as React from 'react';

class SomeComponent extends React.Component {

  render() {
    return (
      <Parent>
        <Child value={1} />
        <Child value={2} />
      </Parent>
    );
  }
}

React.createContext shines where React.cloneElement case couldn't handle nested components

class SomeComponent extends React.Component {

  render() {
    return (
      <Parent>
        <Child value={1} />
        <SomeOtherComp><Child value={2} /></SomeOtherComp>
      </Parent>
    );
  }
}
29
votes

The best way, which allows you to make property transfer is children like a function pattern https://medium.com/merrickchristensen/function-as-child-components-5f3920a9ace9

Code snippet: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-fcmubc

Example:

const Parent = ({ children }) => {
    const somePropsHere = {
      style: {
        color: "red"
      }
      // any other props here...
    }
    return children(somePropsHere)
}

const ChildComponent = props => <h1 {...props}>Hello world!</h1>

const App = () => {
  return (
    <Parent>
      {props => (
        <ChildComponent {...props}>
          Bla-bla-bla
        </ChildComponent>
      )}
    </Parent>
  )
}
26
votes

You can use React.cloneElement, it's better to know how it works before you start using it in your application. It's introduced in React v0.13, read on for more information, so something along with this work for you:

<div>{React.cloneElement(this.props.children, {...this.props})}</div>

So bring the lines from React documentation for you to understand how it's all working and how you can make use of them:

In React v0.13 RC2 we will introduce a new API, similar to React.addons.cloneWithProps, with this signature:

React.cloneElement(element, props, ...children);

Unlike cloneWithProps, this new function does not have any magic built-in behavior for merging style and className for the same reason we don't have that feature from transferPropsTo. Nobody is sure what exactly the complete list of magic things are, which makes it difficult to reason about the code and difficult to reuse when style has a different signature (e.g. in the upcoming React Native).

React.cloneElement is almost equivalent to:

<element.type {...element.props} {...props}>{children}</element.type>

However, unlike JSX and cloneWithProps, it also preserves refs. This means that if you get a child with a ref on it, you won't accidentally steal it from your ancestor. You will get the same ref attached to your new element.

One common pattern is to map over your children and add a new prop. There were many issues reported about cloneWithProps losing the ref, making it harder to reason about your code. Now following the same pattern with cloneElement will work as expected. For example:

var newChildren = React.Children.map(this.props.children, function(child) {
  return React.cloneElement(child, { foo: true })
});

Note: React.cloneElement(child, { ref: 'newRef' }) DOES override the ref so it is still not possible for two parents to have a ref to the same child, unless you use callback-refs.

This was a critical feature to get into React 0.13 since props are now immutable. The upgrade path is often to clone the element, but by doing so you might lose the ref. Therefore, we needed a nicer upgrade path here. As we were upgrading callsites at Facebook we realized that we needed this method. We got the same feedback from the community. Therefore we decided to make another RC before the final release to make sure we get this in.

We plan to eventually deprecate React.addons.cloneWithProps. We're not doing it yet, but this is a good opportunity to start thinking about your own uses and consider using React.cloneElement instead. We'll be sure to ship a release with deprecation notices before we actually remove it so no immediate action is necessary.

more here...

8
votes

I needed to fix accepted answer above to make it work using that instead of this pointer. This within the scope of map function didn't have doSomething function defined.

var Parent = React.createClass({
doSomething: function() {
    console.log('doSomething!');
},

render: function() {
    var that = this;
    var childrenWithProps = React.Children.map(this.props.children, function(child) {
        return React.cloneElement(child, { doSomething: that.doSomething });
    });

    return <div>{childrenWithProps}</div>
}})

Update: this fix is for ECMAScript 5, in ES6 there is no need in var that=this

8
votes

None of the answers address the issue of having children that are NOT React components, such as text strings. A workaround could be something like this:

// Render method of Parent component
render(){
    let props = {
        setAlert : () => {alert("It works")}
    };
    let childrenWithProps = React.Children.map( this.props.children, function(child) {
        if (React.isValidElement(child)){
            return React.cloneElement(child, props);
        }
          return child;
      });
    return <div>{childrenWithProps}</div>

}
7
votes

Cleaner way considering one or more children

<div>
   { React.Children.map(this.props.children, child => React.cloneElement(child, {...this.props}))}
</div>
6
votes

If you have multiple children you want to pass props to, you can do it this way, using the React.Children.map:

render() {
    let updatedChildren = React.Children.map(this.props.children,
        (child) => {
            return React.cloneElement(child, { newProp: newProp });
        });

    return (
        <div>
            { updatedChildren }
        </div>
    );
}

If your component is having just one child, there's no need for mapping, you can just cloneElement straight away:

render() {
    return (
        <div>
            {
                React.cloneElement(this.props.children, {
                    newProp: newProp
                })
            }
        </div>
    );
}
5
votes

Parent.jsx:

import React from 'react';

const doSomething = value => {};

const Parent = props => (
  <div>
    {
      !props || !props.children 
        ? <div>Loading... (required at least one child)</div>
        : !props.children.length 
            ? <props.children.type {...props.children.props} doSomething={doSomething} {...props}>{props.children}</props.children.type>
            : props.children.map((child, key) => 
              React.cloneElement(child, {...props, key, doSomething}))
    }
  </div>
);

Child.jsx:

import React from 'react';

/* but better import doSomething right here,
   or use some flux store (for example redux library) */
export default ({ doSomething, value }) => (
  <div onClick={() => doSomething(value)}/>
);

and main.jsx:

import React from 'react';
import { render } from 'react-dom';
import Parent from './Parent';
import Child from './Child';

render(
  <Parent>
    <Child/>
    <Child value='1'/>
    <Child value='2'/>
  </Parent>,
  document.getElementById('...')
);

see example here: https://plnkr.co/edit/jJHQECrKRrtKlKYRpIWl?p=preview

5
votes

You no longer need {this.props.children}. Now you can wrap your child component using render in Route and pass your props as usual:

<BrowserRouter>
  <div>
    <ul>
      <li><Link to="/">Home</Link></li>
      <li><Link to="/posts">Posts</Link></li>
      <li><Link to="/about">About</Link></li>
    </ul>

    <hr/>

    <Route path="/" exact component={Home} />
    <Route path="/posts" render={() => (
      <Posts
        value1={1}
        value2={2}
        data={this.state.data}
      />
    )} />
    <Route path="/about" component={About} />
  </div>
</BrowserRouter>
5
votes

Got inspired by all the answers above and this is what I have done. I am passing some props like some data, and some components.

import React from "react";

const Parent = ({ children }) => {
  const { setCheckoutData } = actions.shop;
  const { Input, FieldError } = libraries.theme.components.forms;

  const onSubmit = (data) => {
    setCheckoutData(data);
  };

  const childrenWithProps = React.Children.map(
    children,
    (child) =>
      React.cloneElement(child, {
        Input: Input,
        FieldError: FieldError,
        onSubmit: onSubmit,
      })
  );

  return <>{childrenWithProps}</>;
};
4
votes

Maybe you can also find useful this feature, though many people have considered this as an anti-pattern it still can be used if you're know what you're doing and design your solution well.

Function as Child Components

4
votes

I think a render prop is the appropriate way to handle this scenario

You let the Parent provide the necessary props used in child component, by refactoring the Parent code to look to something like this:

const Parent = ({children}) => {
  const doSomething(value) => {}

  return children({ doSomething })
}

Then in the child Component you can access the function provided by the parent this way:

class Child extends React {

  onClick() => { this.props.doSomething }

  render() { 
    return (<div onClick={this.onClick}></div>);
  }

}

Now the fianl stucture will look like this:

<Parent>
  {(doSomething) =>
   (<Fragment>
     <Child value="1" doSomething={doSomething}>
     <Child value="2" doSomething={doSomething}>
    <Fragment />
   )}
</Parent>
3
votes

Further to @and_rest answer, this is how I clone the children and add a class.

<div className="parent">
    {React.Children.map(this.props.children, child => React.cloneElement(child, {className:'child'}))}
</div>
3
votes

According to the documentation of cloneElement()

React.cloneElement(
  element,
  [props],
  [...children]
)

Clone and return a new React element using element as the starting point. The resulting element will have the original element’s props with the new props merged in shallowly. New children will replace existing children. key and ref from the original element will be preserved.

React.cloneElement() is almost equivalent to:

<element.type {...element.props} {...props}>{children}</element.type>

However, it also preserves refs. This means that if you get a child with a ref on it, you won’t accidentally steal it from your ancestor. You will get the same ref attached to your new element.

So cloneElement is what you would use to provide custom props to the children. However there can be multiple children in the component and you would need to loop over it. What other answers suggest is for you to map over them using React.Children.map. However React.Children.map unlike React.cloneElement changes the keys of the Element appending and extra .$ as the prefix. Check this question for more details: React.cloneElement inside React.Children.map is causing element keys to change

If you wish to avoid it, you should instead go for the forEach function like

render() {
    const newElements = [];
    React.Children.forEach(this.props.children, 
              child => newElements.push(
                 React.cloneElement(
                   child, 
                   {...this.props, ...customProps}
                )
              )
    )
    return (
        <div>{newElements}</div>
    )

}
3
votes

For any one who has a single child element this should do it.

{React.isValidElement(this.props.children)
                  ? React.cloneElement(this.props.children, {
                      ...prop_you_want_to_pass
                    })
                  : null}
3
votes

Method 1 - clone children

const Parent = (props) => {
   const attributeToAddOrReplace= "Some Value"
   const childrenWithAdjustedProps = React.Children.map(props.children, child =>
      React.cloneElement(child, { attributeToAddOrReplace})
   );

   return <div>{childrenWithAdjustedProps }</div>
}

Method 2 - use composable context

Context allows you to pass a prop to a deep child component without explicitly passing it as a prop through the components in between.

Context comes with drawbacks:

  1. Data doesn't flow in the regular way - via props.
  2. Using context creates a contract between the consumer and the provider. It might be more difficult to understand and replicate the requirements needed to reuse a component.

Using a composable context

export const Context = createContext<any>(null);

export const ComposableContext = ({ children, ...otherProps }:{children:ReactNode, [x:string]:any}) => {
    const context = useContext(Context)
    return(
      <Context.Provider {...context} value={{...context, ...otherProps}}>{children}</Context.Provider>
    );
}

function App() {
  return (
      <Provider1>
            <Provider2> 
                <Displayer />
            </Provider2>
      </Provider1>
  );
}

const Provider1 =({children}:{children:ReactNode}) => (
    <ComposableContext greeting="Hello">{children}</ComposableContext>
)

const Provider2 =({children}:{children:ReactNode}) => (
    <ComposableContext name="world">{children}</ComposableContext>
)

const Displayer = () => {
  const context = useContext(Context);
  return <div>{context.greeting}, {context.name}</div>;
};
2
votes

The slickest way to do this:

    {React.cloneElement(this.props.children, this.props)}
2
votes

When using functional components, you will often get the TypeError: Cannot add property myNewProp, object is not extensible error when trying to set new properties on props.children. There is a work around to this by cloning the props and then cloning the child itself with the new props.

const MyParentComponent = (props) => {
  return (
    <div className='whatever'>
      {props.children.map((child) => {
        const newProps = { ...child.props }
        // set new props here on newProps
        newProps.myNewProp = 'something'
        const preparedChild = { ...child, props: newProps }
        return preparedChild
      })}
    </div>
  )
}
1
votes

I came to this post while researching for a similar need, but i felt cloning solution that is so popular, to be too raw and takes my focus away from the functionality.

I found an article in react documents Higher Order Components

Here is my sample:

import React from 'react';

const withForm = (ViewComponent) => {
    return (props) => {

        const myParam = "Custom param";

        return (
            <>
                <div style={{border:"2px solid black", margin:"10px"}}>
                    <div>this is poc form</div>
                    <div>
                        <ViewComponent myParam={myParam} {...props}></ViewComponent>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </>
        )
    }
}

export default withForm;


const pocQuickView = (props) => {
    return (
        <div style={{border:"1px solid grey"}}>
            <div>this is poc quick view and it is meant to show when mouse hovers over a link</div>
        </div>
    )
}

export default withForm(pocQuickView);

For me i found a flexible solution in implementing the pattern of Higher Order Components.

Of course it depends on the functionality, but it is good if someone else is looking for a similar requirement, it is much better than being dependent on raw level react code like cloning.

Other pattern that i actively use is the container pattern. do read about it, there are many articles out there.

0
votes

Is this what you required? 

var Parent = React.createClass({
  doSomething: function(value) {
  }
  render: function() {
    return  <div>
              <Child doSome={this.doSomething} />
            </div>
  }
})

var Child = React.createClass({
  onClick:function() {
    this.props.doSome(value); // doSomething is undefined
  },  
  render: function() {
    return  <div onClick={this.onClick}></div>
  }
})
0
votes

Some reason React.children was not working for me. This is what worked for me.

I wanted to just add a class to the child. similar to changing a prop

 var newChildren = this.props.children.map((child) => {
 const className = "MenuTooltip-item " + child.props.className;
    return React.cloneElement(child, { className });
 });

 return <div>{newChildren}</div>;

The trick here is the React.cloneElement. You can pass any prop in a similar manner

0
votes

Render props is most accurate approach to this problem. Instead of passing the child component to parent component as children props, let parent render child component manually. Render is built-in props in react, which takes function parameter. In this function you can let parent component render whatever you want with custom parameters. Basically it does the same thing as child props but it is more customizable. 

class Child extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <div className="Child">
      Child
      <p onClick={this.props.doSomething}>Click me</p>
           {this.props.a}
    </div>;
  }
}

class Parent extends React.Component {
  doSomething(){
   alert("Parent talks"); 
  }

  render() {
    return <div className="Parent">
      Parent
      {this.props.render({
        anythingToPassChildren:1, 
        doSomething: this.doSomething})}
    </div>;
  }
}

class Application extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <div>
      <Parent render={
          props => <Child {...props} />
        }/>
    </div>;
  }
}

Example at codepen

0
votes

This answer is w.r.t. React v17.x...

Use the children as a function and pass props to it as a render props pattern, as below: -

 <ParentComponent {...anyAdditionalProps}>
   {
     (actualPropsToPass) => <ChildComponent>{children(actualPropsToPass)}</ChildComponent>
   }
 </ParentComponent>

Just make sure, the actual, to be projected content must be added like a function in render props pattern, to accommodate the argument passed as a prop within the children function.

0
votes

There are lot of ways to do this.

You can pass children as props in parent.

example 1 :

function Parent({ChildElement}){
   return <ChildElement propName={propValue} />
}

return <Parent ChildElement={ChildComponent}/>

Pass children as Function

example 2 :

function Parent({children}){
   return children({className: "my_div"})
}

OR

function Parent({children}){
   let Child = children
   return <Child className='my_div' />
}

function Child(props){
  return <div {...props}></div>
}

export <Parent>{props => <Child {...props} />}</Parent>