Let’s get hooked: a quick introduction to React Hooks
The React team introduced React Hooks to the world at React Conf in late October 2018. In early February 2019, they finally came in React v16.8.0. While I, like most others probably, won’t be able to use them in production for a while (until we decide to update React), I have been experimenting with them on the side.
I was actually so excited about it, I will be giving an intro talk about it at a local meetup (I’ll post a link to the talk when it becomes available). Additionally, I’ll be giving a talk about Hooks (and other upcoming React features) at WeRockITConf in Huntsville in May! But for now, here’s how to get started with React Hooks!
What are Hooks anyway?
React Hooks let you use state, and other React features without having to define a JavaScript class. It’s like being able to take advantage of the cleanliness and simplicity of a Pure Component and state and component lifecycle methods. This is because Hooks are just regular JavaScript functions! This lends itself to cleaner and less clunky code. A side by side comparison of what the code looks like with and without Hooks for a simple counting component:
