How to fix missing dependency warning when using useEffect React Hook

Question

With React 16.8.6 (it was good on previous version 16.8.3), I get this error when I attempt to prevent an infinite loop on a fetch request:

./src/components/BusinessesList.js
Line 51:  React Hook useEffect has a missing dependency: 'fetchBusinesses'.
Either include it or remove the dependency array  react-hooks/exhaustive-deps

I've been unable to find a solution that stops the infinite loop. I want to stay away from using useReducer(). I did find this discussion [ESLint] Feedback for 'exhaustive-deps' lint rule #14920 where a possible solution is You can always // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps if you think you know what you're doing. I'm not confident in what I'm doing, so I haven't tried implementing it just yet.

I have this current setup, React hook useEffect runs continuously forever/infinite loop and the only comment is about useCallback() which I'm not familiar with.

How I'm currently using useEffect() (which I only want to run once in the beginning similar to componentDidMount()):

useEffect(() => {
    fetchBusinesses();
  }, []);

const fetchBusinesses = () => {
    return fetch("theURL", {method: "GET"}
    )
      .then(res => normalizeResponseErrors(res))
      .then(res => {
        return res.json();
      })
      .then(rcvdBusinesses => {
        // some stuff
      })
      .catch(err => {
        // some error handling
      });
  };

Answer 1

If you aren't using fetchBusinesses method anywhere apart from the effect, you could simply move it into the effect and avoid the warning

useEffect(() => {
    const fetchBusinesses = () => {
       return fetch("theURL", {method: "GET"}
    )
      .then(res => normalizeResponseErrors(res))
      .then(res => {
        return res.json();
      })
      .then(rcvdBusinesses => {
        // some stuff
      })
      .catch(err => {
        // some error handling
      });
  };
  fetchBusinesses();
}, []);

If however you are using fetchBusinesses outside of render, you must note two things

1. Is there any issue with you not passing fetchBusinesses as a method when it's used during mount with its enclosing closure?
2. Does your method depend on some variables which it receives from its enclosing closure? This is not the case for you.
3. On every render, fetchBusinesses will be re-created and hence passing it to useEffect will cause issues. So first you must memoize fetchBusinesses if you were to pass it to the dependency array.

To sum it up I would say that if you are using fetchBusinesses outside of useEffect you can disable the rule using // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps otherwise you can move the method inside of useEffect

To disable the rule you would write it like

useEffect(() => {
   // other code
   ...

   // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
}, []) 

Answer 2

Edit 02/21/2020

Just for completeness:

1. (Stopped working) Use function as useEffect callback

useEffect(fetchBusinesses, [])

2. Declare function inside useEffect()

useEffect(() => {
  function fetchBusinesses() {
    ...
  }
  fetchBusinesses()
}, [])

3. Memoize with useCallback()

In this case, if you have dependencies in your function, you will have to include them in the useCallback dependencies array and this will trigger the useEffect again if the function's params change. Besides, it is a lot of boilerplate... So just pass the function directly to useEffect as in 1. useEffect(fetchBusinesses, []).

const fetchBusinesses = useCallback(() => {
  ...
}, [])
useEffect(() => {
  fetchBusinesses()
}, [fetchBusinesses])

4. Disable eslint's warning

useEffect(() => {
  fetchBusinesses()
}, []) // eslint-disable-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps

---

Original reply

You can set it directly as the useEffect callback:

useEffect(fetchBusinesses, [])

It will trigger only once, so make sure all the function's dependencies are correctly set (same as using componentDidMount/componentWillMount...)

Answer 3

./src/components/BusinessesList.js
Line 51:  React Hook useEffect has a missing dependency: 'fetchBusinesses'.
Either include it or remove the dependency array  react-hooks/exhaustive-deps

It's not a JavaScript/React error, but an ESLint (eslint-plugin-react-hooks) warning.

It's telling you that the hook depends on function fetchBusinesses, so you should pass it as a dependency.

useEffect(() => {
  fetchBusinesses();
}, [fetchBusinesses]);

It could result in invoking the function on every render if the function is declared in a component like:

const Component = () => {
  /*...*/

  // New function declaration every render
  const fetchBusinesses = () => {
    fetch('/api/businesses/')
      .then(...)
  }

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchBusinesses();
  }, [fetchBusinesses]);

  /*...*/
}

because every time the function is redeclared with a new reference.

The correct way of doing this stuff is:

const Component = () => {
  /*...*/

  // Keep the function reference
  const fetchBusinesses = useCallback(() => {
    fetch('/api/businesses/')
      .then(...)
  }, [/* Additional dependencies */])

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchBusinesses();
  }, [fetchBusinesses]);

  /*...*/
}

Or just define the function in useEffect.

More: [ESLint] Feedback for 'exhaustive-deps' lint rule #14920

Answer 4

The solution is also given by React. They advice you use useCallback which will return a memoize version of your function:

The 'fetchBusinesses' function makes the dependencies of the useEffect Hook (at line NN) change on every render. To fix this, wrap the 'fetchBusinesses' definition into its own useCallback() Hook react-hooks/exhaustive-deps

useCallback is simple to use as it has the same signature as useEffect. The difference is that useCallback returns a function. It would look like this:

 const fetchBusinesses = useCallback( () => {
        return fetch("theURL", {method: "GET"}
    )
    .then(() => { /* Some stuff */ })
    .catch(() => { /* Some error handling */ })
  }, [/* deps */])
  // We have a first effect that uses fetchBusinesses
  useEffect(() => {
    // Do things and then fetchBusinesses
    fetchBusinesses();
  }, [fetchBusinesses]);
   // We can have many effects that use fetchBusinesses
  useEffect(() => {
    // Do other things and then fetchBusinesses
    fetchBusinesses();
  }, [fetchBusinesses]);

Answer 5

These warnings are very helpful for finding components that do not update consistently: Is it safe to omit functions from the list of dependencies?.

However, if you want to remove the warnings throughout your project, you can add this to your ESLint configuration:

  {
  "plugins": ["react-hooks"],
  "rules": {
    "react-hooks/exhaustive-deps": 0
    }
  }

Answer 6

const [mount, setMount] = useState(false)
const fetchBusinesses = () => {
   // Function definition
}
useEffect(() => {
   if(!mount) {
      setMount(true);
      fetchBusinesses();
   }
},[fetchBusinesses]);

This is solution is pretty simple and you don't need to override ESLint warnings. Just maintain a flag to check whether the component is mounted or not.

Answer 7

This article is a good primer on fetching data with hooks: https://www.robinwieruch.de/react-hooks-fetch-data/

Essentially, include the fetch function definition inside useEffect:

useEffect(() => {
  const fetchBusinesses = () => {
    return fetch("theUrl"...
      // ...your fetch implementation
    );
  }

  fetchBusinesses();
}, []);

Answer 8

You try this way:

const fetchBusinesses = () => {
    return fetch("theURL", {method: "GET"})
        .then(res => normalizeResponseErrors(res))
        .then(res => {
            return res.json();
        })
        .then(rcvdBusinesses => {
            // Some stuff
        })
        .catch(err => {
            // Some error handling
        });
  };

and

useEffect(() => {
    fetchBusinesses();
});

It works for you.

But my suggestion is try this way and it also works for you. It's better than the previous way. I use it this way:

useEffect(() => {
    const fetchBusinesses = () => {
        return fetch("theURL", {method: "GET"})
            .then(res => normalizeResponseErrors(res))
            .then(res => {
                return res.json();
            })
            .then(rcvdBusinesses => {
                // Some stuff
            })
            .catch(err => {
                // Some error handling
            });
    };

    fetchBusinesses();
}, []);

If you get data on the base of a specific id, then add in callback useEffect [id]. Then it cannot show you the warning React Hook useEffect has a missing dependency: 'any thing'. Either include it or remove the dependency array

Answer 9

Just disable ESLint for the next line;

useEffect(() => {
   fetchBusinesses();
// eslint-disable-next-line
}, []);

In this way, you are using it just like a component did mount (called once).

updated

or

const fetchBusinesses = useCallback(() => {
 // Your logic in here
 }, [someDeps])

useEffect(() => {
   fetchBusinesses();
// No need to skip the ESLint warning
}, [fetchBusinesses]);

fetchBusinesses will be called every time someDeps changes.

Answer 10

You can remove the second argument type array [], but the fetchBusinesses() will also be called on every update. You can add an IF statement into the fetchBusinesses() implementation if you like.

React.useEffect(() => {
  fetchBusinesses();
});

The other one is to implement the fetchBusinesses() function outside your component. Just don't forget to pass any dependency arguments to your fetchBusinesses(dependency) call, if any.

function fetchBusinesses (fetch) {
  return fetch("theURL", { method: "GET" })
    .then(res => normalizeResponseErrors(res))
    .then(res => res.json())
    .then(rcvdBusinesses => {
      // some stuff
    })
    .catch(err => {
      // some error handling
    });
}

function YourComponent (props) {
  const { fetch } = props;

  React.useEffect(() => {
    fetchBusinesses(fetch);
  }, [fetch]);

  // ...
}

Answer 11

Well, if you want to look into this differently, you just need to know what options React has that are non exhaustive-deps. One of the reason you should not use a closure function inside the effect is on every render, it will be recreated/destroyed again.

So there are multiple React methods in hooks that are considered stable and non-exhausted where you do not have to apply to the useEffect dependencies, and in turn will not break the rules engagement of react-hooks/exhaustive-deps. For example, the second return variable of useReducer or useState which is a function.

const [,dispatch] = useReducer(reducer, {});

useEffect(() => {
    dispatch(); // Non-exhausted - ESLint won't nag about this
}, []);

So in turn, you can have all your external dependencies coexist with your current dependencies within your reducer function.

const [,dispatch] = useReducer((current, update) => {
    const { foobar } = update;
    // Logic

    return { ...current, ...update };
}), {});

const [foobar, setFoobar] = useState(false);

useEffect(() => {
    dispatch({ foobar }); // non-exhausted `dispatch` function
}, [foobar]);

Answer 12

Just pass the function as the argument in the array of useEffect...

useEffect(() => {
   functionName()
}, [functionName])

Answer 13

Actually the warnings are very useful when you develop with hooks. But in some cases, it can needle you. Especially when you do not need to listen for dependencies change.

If you don't want to put fetchBusinesses inside the hook's dependencies, you can simply pass it as an argument to the hook's callback and set the main fetchBusinesses as the default value for it like this:

useEffect((fetchBusinesses = fetchBusinesses) => {
   fetchBusinesses();
}, []);

It's not best practice, but it could be useful in some cases.

Also, as Shubham wrote, you can add the below code to tell ESLint to ignore the checking for your hook.

// eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps

Answer 14

This warning happens, if variables that you are using inside useEffect are defined inside the component or passed to the component as a prop. Since you defined fetchBusinesses() inside same component, you have to pass it to the dependency array.

But if you imported fetchBusinesses() and then used it inside useEffect, you would not need to add it to the dependency array. That is how we actually set up our Redux applications: we always import our action creators and run it inside useEffect without adding it to the dependency array.

The same is true for useMemo too.

Answer 15

In my case, it had this warning with my local variable organization, and when I put organization in the dependency array, useEffect would fetch infinitely. Therefore if you have some problems like mine, use useEffect with the dependency array and split:

Because if you have multiple API calls that modify state, it invokes useEffect multiple times.

From:

  const { organization } = useSelector(withOrganization)
  const dispatch = useDispatch()

  useEffect(() => {
    dispatch(getOrganization({}))
    dispatch(getSettings({}))
    dispatch(getMembers({}))
  }, [dispatch, organization])

To:

  const { organization } = useSelector(withOrganization)
  const dispatch = useDispatch()

  useEffect(() => {
    dispatch(getOrganization({}))
    dispatch(getSettings({}))
  }, [dispatch, organization])

  useEffect(() => {
    dispatch(getMembers({}))
  }, [dispatch])

Answer 16

Add this comment on the top of your file to disable the warning:

/* eslint-disable react-hooks/exhaustive-deps */