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By Thomas Hintz

When should you use React.PureComponent?

To improve performance of your class based components you can use React.PureComponent. React.PureComponent is like React.Component except it implements componentShouldUpdate for you. The implementation it provides memoizes the component based on its props and state using a shallow comparison. To be able to utilize React.PureComponent it is required that you program in a "pure" style. This means given the same prop and state values you always render the same output.

If you're working with class based components you should read on but if you are working with functional components you can learn how to achieve the same thing with React.memo and useMemo in my article "When should you use React.memo and useMemo?".

React.PureComponent

class Pancake extends React.PureComponent {
    ...
}

React.PureComponent just replaces the usual extends React.Component with extends React.PureComponent.

Eligibility

Like for React.memo and useMemo we must first make sure that our component is eligible for React.PureComponent.

// Example 1
// Example of a "pure" component
// Returns an H1 denoting whether the pancake was over-cooked

class CookedPancake extends React.Component {
    render() {
        const { batter, bakingTime, maxTime } = this.props;
        if (bakingTime > maxTime) {
            return (<h1>{batter} Over-cooked!</h1>);
        }
        return (<h1>{batter} Cooked Just Perfect!</h1>);
    }
}

In the first example we just define a pure component and you can see that if the props are the same the rendered output will be the same and the component doesn't reference outside state or use random numbers. This is the first step in determining if a component is eligible for React.PureComponent.

The next step is determining if the same props are passed in to the component multiple times or not. Like let's say we are using the CookedPancake component in an app that runs a simulation of baking times. The app starts simulating baking times from 0 to 10 incrementing the baking time by 1 for each iteration. In this case bakingTime is not a good candidate for React.memo because the bakingTime prop is different every time React goes to render the component so memoization will provide no benefit.

On the other hand let's say we have multiple different types of pancake batters in a list and the user is able to re-arrange the order in which they cook the pancakes. The prop values will be reused every time React re-renders the list of CookedPancake components. And since React may re-render each CookedPancake whenever the order of the list changes this means we have the right conditions for React.PureComponent.

Usage

// Example 2
// Memoized component

// Only the class signature has changed:
class CookedPancake extends React.PureComponent {
    render() {
        const { batter, bakingTime, maxTime } = this.props;
        if (bakingTime > maxTime) {
            return (<h1>{batter} Over-cooked!</h1>);
        }
        return (<h1>{batter} Cooked Just Perfect!</h1>);
    }
}

// Render CookedPancake with the same prop values.
class MyPancakes extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <>
                <CookedPancake batter='Swedish'
                               bakingTime=1
                               maxTime=1.5
                />
                <CookedPancake batter='Swedish'
                               bakingTime=1
                               maxTime=1.5
                />
            </>
        );
    }
};

In Example 2 we add React.PureComponent to the component class definition and add the MyPancakes component that renders two Swedish CookedPancake. When React renders the first CookedPancake it will run the component's render code like normal but when it goes to render the second CookedPancake it will find a stored result matching the same prop values and instead of running the CookedPancake render code it will just use the result of its stored run (from the first CookedPancake render). It should also be noted that if CookedPancake had any child components their render code would also not be run since their output is a part of the memoized result. This means you can stop React from rendering an entire portion of your component tree with React.PureComponent.

Pitfalls

// Example 3
// WRONG, this will not behave as expected

// A button that takes an onClick handler and some text.
class Button extends React.PureComponent {
    render() {
        const { onClick, text } = this.props;
        return (<button onClick={onClick} text={text});
    }
};

// Use the Button component and log to console when clicked.
class LogButton extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <Button onClick={() => console.log('Log button clicked!')}
                    text='Log'
            />
        );
    }
};

class App extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <>
                <LogButton/>
                <LogButton/>
            </>
        );
    }
};

It's important to remember that React.PureComponent use shallow comparison of props so passing anonymous functions or Javascript literals will probably not do what you want, as we can see in Example 3. In this example we create a simple button that allows an onClick handler to be set and some text for the button. Then we create a LogButton that just logs to the console when it is clicked (and this is where the bug is too). The App component just includes two LogButton components. If this behaved the way we might expect then we would expect React to not re-render LogButton when it gets to the second LogButton in App because it appears as if the props to Button are the same. But, in fact, they are not the same at all. The onClick handler is an anonymous function that Javascript creates every time it renders that code. So even though what the function does is constant a new Javascript object is allocated every time. This means that the memoization function always thinks the props have changed and will always re-render the component. Not what we want.

// Example 4
// Re-write LogButton to work with Button's PureComponent usage

const logButtonClicked = () => console.log('Log button clicked!');

class LogButton extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <Button onClick={logButtonClicked}
                    text='Log'
            />
        );
    }
};

In Example 4 we can see that moving the definition of the logging function outside the render path fixes the issue because now the same function object is always passed to Button.

// Example 5
// WRONG, does not work as expected

// We change Button to take text as an object
class Button extends React.PureComponent {
    render() {
        const { onClick, attributes } = this.props;
        return (<button onClick={onClick} text={attributes.text});
    }
};

class LogButton extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <Button onClick={logButtonClicked}
                    attributes={{ text: 'Log' }}
            />
        );
    }
};

Let's say we wanted our button to take an object of attributes that we could use instead of adding a new prop for every attribute of our button. This might seem straightforward at first, as we can see in Example 5 with { text: 'Log' }. But this suffers the same flaw as Example 3 with the anonymous function. Every time React renders LogButton it will create a new object for attributes breaking the memoization. In this case the fix is the same as for the anonymous function: don't create object literals in the render path.

So far we've just been looking at props but React also includes the component's state in the memoization so make sure you follow the same rules for state as you would for props.

If you have nested state and still want to use React.PureComponent you can do so by utilizing React's forceUpdate API but this not recommended as it can lead to code that is more difficult to understand and use.

Children

Also make sure that all child components of your memoized component follow the same rules otherwise they won't re-render when you expect them to.

In summary, you should use React.PureComponent when rendering is a bottleneck and you are working with pure components, props, state, and arguments. And if you want to learn more about high performance React programming subscribe to the email list or the atom feed.