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JavaScript React Components (2018) Stateful Components and Lifecycle Methods Update the Stopwatch State with componentDidMount()

Posted by vamosrope14
vamosrope14
14,932 Points

Can someone please explain the concept behind elapsedTime and previousTime?

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1 Answer

okilydokily
okilydokily
12,105 Points
okilydokily
okilydokily
12,105 Points

Say your current time is 12:00, then in 1 minute, your current time is 12:01. When it is 12:01 you can get the elapsed time by subtracting 12:00 from 12:01 which would be 1 minute. You then add that 1 minute to the elapsed time variable which starts at zero. At 12:02 you would subtract 12:01 (Which would be the previous time) to get another minute of elapsed time which you should then add to the elapsed time variable. At this point, you will have 2 minutes in the elapsed time variable.

We need to do things this way because the setInterval is not precise but you can get a precise time with Date.now()