What are the features of React?

React is a declarative and flexible library for building user interfaces based on UI components. It’s an open-source project typically used to develop web applications that require constant data changes in their UIs.

A typical approach would require reloading the entire page when we click any part of the UI, but React avoids this by using components—small, reusable pieces of the interface—and only updating the parts that have changed. Think of Facebook, where we scroll through the application to see new posts while other page components stay the same.

React features

Due to its unique features, React is widely regarded as one of the most popular JavaScript libraries for web development. Let’s explore the critical aspects that make React a preferred choice for developers.

The following are the critical features of React:

1. Virtual DOM in React

One of the standout features of React is the Virtual DOM, a lightweight representation of the actual DOM. Instead of updating the entire DOM whenever a change occurs, React uses the virtual DOM to determine what has changed and updates only those specific parts. This feature significantly enhances performance, making React applications fast and responsive.

Let’s look at how the Virtual DOM works:

1. When a React component is rendered for the first time, a virtual representation of the DOM is created.

2. Whenever there is a state or prop change, via a key press or button click, a notification is sent to the virtual nodes for a state change. If any property of the node is altered, it updates itself.

3. React then compares the updated virtual DOM with the real DOM to identify which elements have changed.

4. Only the changed elements are updated in the actual DOM, minimizing performance overhead. The updated real DOM is then rendered on the screen.

This approach allows React to optimize rendering and ensure high-performance user experiences. Consider a social media app where the feed is constantly updated without affecting other components on the page. React’s Virtual DOM handles such scenarios efficiently.

Explore the concepts of virtual and real DOM with a project on Educative. Try this project: Get Live Weather Information Using React.

2. Component-based architecture

React’s component-based architecture is another key feature that makes it a powerful tool for building user interfaces. In React, everything is treated as a component, which can be thought of as a building block for your application. This modular approach simplifies development, testing, and maintenance, especially for large-scale projects.

Some main benefits of this architecture are:

• Reusability: Components can be reused across different parts of the application, reducing code duplication and enhancing consistency.

• Isolation: Each component manages its own state and behavior, making the application easier to understand and debug.

• Modularity: The modular nature of components makes it easy to scale and manage complex applications.

Imagine building a web application like an e-commerce platform. With React, you can create components like product cards, shopping carts, and checkout forms and reuse them throughout the application. This approach not only saves time but also ensures a consistent user experience.

Want to use React’s component-based architecture to create a personal portfolio? Try this project: Build a Personal Portfolio Using React.

3. JSX

JSX is primarily associated with React, but JSX can also be utilized with other libraries and frameworks. It allows developers to write HTML-like syntax directly in their JavaScript code, making it easier to create and understand the structure of React components. JSX simplifies the process of creating React components, making the code more readable and easier to debug. It also provides a more intuitive way to create UI components compared to traditional JavaScript.

With JSX, developers can build complex UI structures with ease, using a syntax that resembles HTML. For example, building a form in React using JSX is much more straightforward compared to traditional JavaScript approaches.

Practice the JSX syntax by creating a News Portal Analytics App in React.

Let’s look at a very basic example where JSX is used to dynamically display a greeting message, making the code more intuitive and easier to understand.

4. One-way data binding

React uses a unidirectional data flow, meaning that data flows from the application’s state to the components that need it. To modify data, developers must use callbacks to reflect changes in the state, rather than directly editing the components. The Flux architecture complements React by further organizing this unidirectional flow of data. Flux helps manage how data is passed between components and the state, increasing flexibility and improving efficiency.

React employs one-way data binding, which means that data flows in a single direction, from parent components to child components. This approach simplifies data management and makes it easier to debug applications. Since data flows in one direction, it’s easier to understand and track changes in the application. Moreover, the parent components control the state of child components, making it easier to manage and update data.

This feature is particularly useful in complex applications where data needs to be passed down through multiple levels of components. For instance, in a dashboard application, data can be passed from a parent component to various child components like charts, tables, and graphs.

Understand one-way data binding with hands-on practice by building a task manager using React.

5. Declarative user interface

The declarative user interface in React allows developers to describe what the UI should look like based on the current state, without specifying how to update it explicitly. This feature makes React code more readable and user-friendly, especially for bug fixes.

The code is more readable and maintainable, making it easier to manage complex user interfaces. Moreover, the declarative approach makes it easier to understand how the UI will change in response to different states, simplifying the debugging process.

Want to create declarative user interfaces in React? Try out this project: Build the Frontend of a Financial Application Using React.

For example, in a real-time chat application, React can automatically update the chat window to show new messages as they arrive without the need for manual DOM manipulation. Try the “Build a Real-time Chat App with Socket.IO and MERN Stack” project.

Continue learning more about React

Explore these projects for hands-on practice:

• Create a Drawing Application Using React.js and Fabric.js

• Build a 3-D Tic-tac-toe Using React Three Fiber

• Build a Memory Game Using React

• Build a Stock Market App Using React and Chart.js

• Create a Trello Clone with React