React Best Practices to Follow in 2023

React is an open-source javascript library, popularly used for building interactive user-interface. It is one of the most preferred frontend technology by developers to build applications. The ease of use, high performance, scalability, reusability, speed, and flexibility are some of the features that make it a great choice for building responsive, scalable, and efficient applications.

For using React and leveraging the benefits it has to offer up to its maximum potential. There are certain practices advised to be followed while developing an application using React.js. We have covered some of them here, which would also help developers in evading major challenges faced while developing. Whether you are a developer using React or you want to hire React developer to create an application for your business, knowing the best practices to follow is beneficial. Since it ensures the quality, performance, security, and scalability of the application.

React best practice to follow:

1. Functional components

The practice of keeping small components, specific to function is a recommended practice than keeping large components that perform multiple functions. The advantage of having a functional component is it is standalone which makes testing and maintenance easier. The reusability of the function component is higher since it can be used in other projects as well. The readability of the code and management is also better with functional components.

2. High Order Components

High Order Components let you reuse the logic in multiple components. HOC is one of the advanced techniques used in React that avoids the repetition of code and increases code readability.

3. DRY

One of the best practices followed by React to avoid code duplication is to write DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) code. The repetitive code can be composed in a component and the component can be used multiple time to saving time and increasing the efficiency of the code.

4. Folder Structure

The folder structure of the project would depend on the development team, but certain standards help us maintain a neat folder structure. A good folder structure saves a lot of time and is easier to navigate through the files. A well-organized folder structure comes in handy especially when the size of the application is large. The two common practices for folder organizing are,

• Similar files combined
• Combining the folders based on features

Various other ways are adapted for organizing folders, it is important to follow anyone throughout the project.

5. CSS in Javascript

Another practice followed to keep the folders clean and neat is not to use different stylesheet files for each component. To avoid different files for styling it is advised to combine the CSS and javascript code. You can use one of the libraries for this purpose,

• EmotionJS
• Styled Components
• Glamorous

6. Naming Conventions

Following a standard naming convention is necessary to avoid confusion later on. There are certain naming conventions followed, and we have mentioned some of them.

The component names are usually in Pascal’s case such as SelectButton, NavMenu, and TextField.

For naming methods, functions, hooks, variables, and arrays Camel case is followed for example ‘showText()’, ‘getStudent()’.

7. Linter

The Linter tool helps you maintain an error and bug-free code by checking the code for any potential errors. It helps the developer in more than one way, it also allows writing a predefined rule set to be followed in the project. It will help in maintaining code uniformity throughout the project. One of the most commonly used tools is ESLint in javascript and react.

8. Use Lazy Loading

It is beneficial where the application is large and it causes delays in loading the pages. This technique helps in providing a better user experience by restricting the not-so-necessary part of the page and loading the important functionality of the page faster. It is also known as code splitting as you split the code into parts depending on the requirement.

9. Test your code

One of the crucial aspects of development is testing to ensure proper error-free functioning. It is an essential practice to write test cases for each component you built, to write maintainable code. It is also beneficial when you are trying to add new functionality and new to write new code. Since testing ensures the existing codes work properly without error. Jest is one of the commonly used testing frameworks.

10. Snippet Libraries

Using snippet libraries helps the developers with coding, by providing prebuilt code that can be useful in saving time and effort. Snippet library also helps you with the latest syntax. It is easier and faster to create react functional components with the snippet.

11. Limit Component Creation

One of the major benefits of React is code reusability. By following the practice of one component, one function one can take maximum advantage of code reusability. Since you can use the component for performing the function as many times in the code as required. This practice saves a lot of time and increases efficiency, and the time to market is also reduced.

12. Destructuring

It is advisable to use object destructuring to pass the prop name rather than passing the props object. Destructuring props increases the code readability by making the code cleaner. This feature makes it easier to extract form data and the process of assigning your variables from the object.

13. Avoid Using State

In React, State is a built-in object that stores information or data about the component. The component re-renders whenever the state changes. Using the State is not one of the best practices, it is advised to avoid using the state as much as possible. Because it increases the amount of data that needs to be tracked across the application.

14. Use Hooks

Hooks is one of the recent addition to React. With the help of Hook, you can use class and other react features without writing a class. Clean code, logic reusability, and maintainability are the major benefits of using the hook.

15. Use Fragments