Invariant Violation: Objects are not valid as a React child

Question

In my component's render function I have:

render() {
    const items = ['EN', 'IT', 'FR', 'GR', 'RU'].map((item) => {
      return (<li onClick={this.onItemClick.bind(this, item)} key={item}>{item}</li>);
    });
    return (
      <div>
        ...
                <ul>
                  {items}
                </ul>
         ...
      </div>
    );
  }

everything renders fine, however when clicking the <li> element I receive the following error:

Uncaught Error: Invariant Violation: Objects are not valid as a React child (found: object with keys {dispatchConfig, dispatchMarker, nativeEvent, target, currentTarget, type, eventPhase, bubbles, cancelable, timeStamp, defaultPrevented, isTrusted, view, detail, screenX, screenY, clientX, clientY, ctrlKey, shiftKey, altKey, metaKey, getModifierState, button, buttons, relatedTarget, pageX, pageY, isDefaultPrevented, isPropagationStopped, _dispatchListeners, _dispatchIDs}). If you meant to render a collection of children, use an array instead or wrap the object using createFragment(object) from the React add-ons. Check the render method of Welcome.

If I change to this.onItemClick.bind(this, item) to (e) => onItemClick(e, item) inside the map function everything works as expected.

If someone could explain what I am doing wrong and explain why do I get this error, would be great

UPDATE 1:
onItemClick function is as follows and removing this.setState results in error disappearing.

onItemClick(e, item) {
    this.setState({
      lang: item,
    });
}

But I cannot remove this line as I need to update state of this component

Answer 1

I was having this error and it turned out to be that I was unintentionally including an Object in my JSX code that I had expected to be a string value:

return (
    <BreadcrumbItem href={routeString}>
        {breadcrumbElement}
    </BreadcrumbItem>
)

breadcrumbElement used to be a string but due to a refactor had become an Object. Unfortunately, React's error message didn't do a good job in pointing me to the line where the problem existed. I had to follow my stack trace all the way back up until I recognized the "props" being passed into a component and then I found the offending code.

You'll need to either reference a property of the object that is a string value or convert the Object to a string representation that is desirable. One option might be JSON.stringify if you actually want to see the contents of the Object.

Answer 2

So I got this error when trying to display the createdAt property which is a Date object. If you concatenate .toString() on the end like this, it will do the conversion and eliminate the error. Just posting this as a possible answer in case anyone else ran into the same problem:

{this.props.task.createdAt.toString()}

Answer 3

I just got the same error but due to a different mistake: I used double braces like:

{{count}}

to insert the value of count instead of the correct:

{count}

which the compiler presumably turned into {{count: count}}, i.e. trying to insert an Object as a React child.

Answer 4

Just thought I would add to this as I had the same problem today, turns out that it was because I was returning just the function, when I wrapped it in a <div> tag it started working, as below

renderGallery() {
  const gallerySection = galleries.map((gallery, i) => {
    return (
      <div>
        ...
      </div>
    );
  });
  return (
    {gallerySection}
  );
}

The above caused the error. I fixed the problem by changing the return() section to:

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

...or simply:

return gallerySection

Answer 5

React child(singular) should be type of primitive data type not object or it could be JSX tag(which is not in our case). Use Proptypes package in development to make sure validation happens.

Just a quick code snippet(JSX) comparision to represent you with idea :

1. Error : With object being passed into child

   <div>
   {/* item is object with user's name and its other details on it */}
    {items.map((item, index) => {
     return <div key={index}>
   --item object invalid as react child--->>>{item}</div>;
    })}
   </div>
   

2. Without error : With object's property(which should be primitive, i.e. a string value or integer value) being passed into child.

   <div>
    {/* item is object with user's name and its other details on it */}
     {items.map((item, index) => {
      return <div key={index}>
   --note the name property is primitive--->{item.name}</div>;
     })}
   </div>
   

TLDR; (From the source below) : Make sure all of the items you're rendering in JSX are primitives and not objects when using React. This error usually happens because a function involved in dispatching an event has been given an unexpected object type (i.e passing an object when you should be passing a string) or part of the JSX in your component is not referencing a primitive (i.e. this.props vs this.props.name).

Source - codingbismuth.com

Answer 6

Mine had to do with forgetting the curly braces around props being sent to a presentational component:

Before:

const TypeAheadInput = (name, options, onChange, value, error) => {

After

const TypeAheadInput = ({name, options, onChange, value, error}) => {

Answer 7

Mine had to do with unnecessarily putting curly braces around a variable holding a HTML element inside the return statement of the render() function. This made React treat it as an object rather than an element.

render() {
  let element = (
    <div className="some-class">
      <span>Some text</span>
    </div>
  );

  return (
    {element}
  )
}

Once I removed the curly braces from the element, the error was gone, and the element was rendered correctly.

Answer 8

I too was getting this "Objects are not valid as a React child" error and for me the cause was due to calling an asynchronous function in my JSX. See below.

class App extends React.Component {
    showHello = async () => {
        const response = await someAPI.get("/api/endpoint");

        // Even with response ignored in JSX below, this JSX is not immediately returned, 
        // causing "Objects are not valid as a React child" error.
        return (<div>Hello!</div>);
    }

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

What I learned is that asynchronous rendering is not supported in React. The React team is working on a solution as documented here.

Answer 9

For anybody using Firebase with Android, this only breaks Android. My iOS emulation ignores it.

And as posted by Apoorv Bankey above.

Anything above Firebase V5.0.3, for Android, atm is a bust. Fix:

npm i --save [email protected]

Confirmed numerous times here https://github.com/firebase/firebase-js-sdk/issues/871

Answer 10

I also have the same problem but my mistake is so stupid. I was trying to access object directly.

class App extends Component {
    state = {
        name:'xyz',
        age:10
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <div className="App">
                // this is what I am using which gives the error
                <p>I am inside the {state}.</p> 

                //Correct Way is

                <p>I am inside the {this.state.name}.</p> 
            </div>
        );
    }                                                                             

}

Answer 11

Typically this pops up because you don't destructure properly. Take this code for example:

const Button = text => <button>{text}</button>

const SomeForm = () => (
  <Button text="Save" />
)

We're declaring it with the = text => param. But really, React is expecting this to be an all-encompassing props object.

So we should really be doing something like this:

const Button = props => <button>{props.text}</button>

const SomeForm = () => (
  <Button text="Save" />
)

Notice the difference? The props param here could be named anything (props is just the convention that matches the nomenclature), React is just expecting an object with keys and vals.

With object destructuring you can do, and will frequently see, something like this:

const Button = ({ text }) => <button>{text}</button>

const SomeForm = () => (
  <Button text="Save" />
)

...which works.

Chances are, anyone stumbling upon this just accidentally declared their component's props param without destructuring.

Answer 12

I had the same problem because I didn't put the props in the curly braces.

export default function Hero(children, hero ) {
    return (
        <header className={hero}>
            {children}
        </header>
    );
}

So if your code is similar to the above one then you will get this error. To resolve this just put curly braces around the props.

export default function Hero({ children, hero }) {
    return (
        <header className={hero}>
            {children}
        </header>
    );
}

Answer 13

In my case the error was happening because I returned elements array in curly braces instead of just returning the array itself.

Code with error

   render() {
        var rows = this.props.products.map(product => <tr key={product.id}><td>{product.name}</td><td>{product.price}</td></tr>
        );
        return {rows};
    }

Correct code

render() {
    var rows = this.props.products.map(product => <tr key={product.id}><td>{product.name}</td><td>{product.price}</td></tr>
    );
    return rows;
}

Answer 14

If for some reason you imported firebase. Then try running npm i --save [email protected]. This is because firebase break react-native, so running this will fix it.

Answer 15

In my case it was i forgot to return a html element frm the render function and i was returning an object . What i did was i just wrapped the {items} with a html element - a simple div like below

<ul>{items}</ul>

Answer 16

I got the same error, I changed this

export default withAlert(Alerts)

to this

export default withAlert()(Alerts).

In older versions the former code was ok , but in later versions it throws an error. So use the later code to avoid the errror.

Answer 17

This was my code:

class App extends Component {
  constructor(props){
    super(props)
    this.state = {
      value: null,
      getDatacall : null
    }
    this.getData = this.getData.bind(this)
  }
  getData() {
  //   if (this.state.getDatacall === false) {
    sleep(4000)
    returnData("what is the time").then(value => this.setState({value, getDatacall:true}))
    // }
  }
  componentDidMount() {
    sleep(4000)

    this.getData()
  }
  render() {
    this.getData()
    sleep(4000)
    console.log(this.state.value)
    return (
      <p> { this.state.value } </p>
    )
  }
}

and I was running into this error. I had to change it to

 render() {
    this.getData()
    sleep(4000)
    console.log(this.state.value)
    return (
      <p> { JSON.stringify(this.state.value) } </p>
    )
  }

Hope this helps someone!

Answer 18

In my case, I added a async to my child function component and encountered this error. Don't use async with child component.

Answer 19

You were just using the keys of object, instead of the whole object!

More details can be found here: https://github.com/gildata/RAIO/issues/48

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';

class SCT extends Component {
    constructor(props, context) {
        super(props, context);
        this.state = {
            data: this.props.data,
            new_data: {}
        };
    }
    componentDidMount() {
        let new_data = this.state.data;
        console.log(`new_data`, new_data);
        this.setState(
            {
                new_data: Object.assign({}, new_data)
            }
        )
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                this.state.data = {JSON.stringify(this.state.data)}
                <hr/>
                <div style={{color: 'red'}}>
                    {this.state.new_data.name}<br />
                    {this.state.new_data.description}<br />
                    {this.state.new_data.dependtables}<br />
                </div>
            </div>
        );
    }
}

SCT.propTypes = {
    test: PropTypes.string,
    data: PropTypes.object.isRequired
};

export {SCT};
export default SCT;

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>

Answer 20

I have the same issue, in my case, I update the redux state, and new data parameters did not match old parameters, So when I want to access some parameters it through this Error,

Maybe this experience help someone

Answer 21

If you are using Firebase and seeing this error, it's worth to check if you're importing it right. As of version 5.0.4 you have to import it like this:

import firebase from '@firebase/app'
import '@firebase/auth';
import '@firebase/database';
import '@firebase/storage';

Yes, I know. I lost 45 minutes on this, too.

Answer 22

I got this error any time I was calling async on a renderItem function in my FlatList.

I had to create a new function to set my Firestore collection to my state before calling said state data inside my FlatList.

Answer 23

My case is quite common when using reduce but it was not shared here so I posted it.

Normally, if your array from server response look like this:

const array = [{ value: 1}, {value: 2}]

And you want to render the sum of value in this array. JSX code looks like this

<div>{array.reduce((acc, curr) => acc.value + curr.value)}</div>

The problem happens when your array has only one item, eg: [{value: 1}];

The reduce code lines will return the only one element inside array immediately and it is an object and it causes the error.

Answer 24

I just put myself through a really silly version of this error, which I may as well share here for posterity.

I had some JSX like this:

...
{
  ...
  <Foo />
  ...
}
...

I needed to comment this out to debug something. I used the keyboard shortcut in my IDE, which resulted in this:

...
{
  ...
  { /* <Foo /> */ }
  ...
}
...

Which is, of course, invalid -- objects are not valid as react children!

Answer 25

I'd like to add another solution to this list.

Specs:

• "react": "^16.2.0",
• "react-dom": "^16.2.0",
• "react-redux": "^5.0.6",
• "react-scripts": "^1.0.17",
• "redux": "^3.7.2"

I encountered the same error:

Uncaught Error: Objects are not valid as a React child (found: object with keys {XXXXX}). If you meant to render a collection of children, use an array instead.

This was my code:

let payload = {
      guess: this.userInput.value
};

this.props.dispatch(checkAnswer(payload));

Solution:

  // let payload = {
  //   guess: this.userInput.value
  // };

this.props.dispatch(checkAnswer(this.userInput.value));

The problem was occurring because the payload was sending the item as an object. When I removed the payload variable and put the userInput value into the dispatch everything started working as expected.

Answer 26

If in case your using Firebase any of the files within your project. Then just place that import firebase statement at the end!!

I know this sounds crazy but try it!!

Answer 27

My issue was simple when i faced the following error:

objects are not valid as a react child (found object with keys {...}

was just that I was passing an object with keys specified in the error while trying to render the object directly in a component using {object} expecting it to be a string

object: {
    key1: "key1",
    key2: "key2"
}

while rendering on a React Component, I used something like below

render() {
    return this.props.object;
}

but it should have been

render() {
    return this.props.object.key1;
}

Answer 28

If using stateless components, follow this kind of format:

const Header = ({pageTitle}) => (
  <h1>{pageTitle}</h1>
);
export {Header};

This seemed to work for me

Answer 29

Something like this has just happened to me...

I wrote:

{response.isDisplayOptions &&
{element}
}

Placing it inside a div fixed it:

{response.isDisplayOptions &&
    <div>
        {element}
    </div>
}

Answer 30

Found: object with keys

Which means you passing something is a key-value. So you need to modify your handler:

onItemClick(e, item) {
   this.setState({
     lang: item,
   });
}

onItemClick({e, item}) {
  this.setState({
    lang: item,
  });
}

You missed out the braces ({}).