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Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 PointsQuestion about react
Hi,
I got a question about the React Basic course.
What is the difference between:
var Something = React.createClass();
// and
function Something(props) {}
2 Answers
David ODey
11,744 PointsI'm pretty new to React, but I believe the first one creates a component that would hold state, "smart component". The second one creates a component that would NOT hold state, "dumb component".
Hope this helps.
Iain Simmons
Treehouse Moderator 32,305 PointsDavid ODey is right, but at the end of the day they are both functions that will effectively return React elements. Class Components just have a few extra tricks up their sleeves for managing state, using lifecycle hooks, and more.
According to the React docs 'Components and Props':
Components let you split the UI into independent, reusable pieces, and think about each piece in isolation.
Conceptually, components are like JavaScript functions. They accept arbitrary inputs (called "props") and return React elements describing what should appear on the screen.
Functional and Class Components
The simplest way to define a component is to write a JavaScript function... This function is a valid React component because it accepts a single "props" object argument with data and returns a React element. We call such components "functional" because they are literally JavaScript functions.