Can't set state in componentWillMount

Question

I am creating a simple chat app where I make an api call to my database via axios which returns an array of message objects. I am able to get the data when I make an axios c

Answer 1

componentWillMount() is invoked immediately before mounting occurs. It is called before render(), therefore setting state in this method will not trigger a re-rendering. Avoid introducing any side-effects or subscriptions in this method. docs

So, You need to call componentDidMount as-

componentDidMount() {
    axios.get(`api/messages`)
      .then((result) => {
        const messages = result.data
        console.log("COMPONENT WILL Mount messages : ", messages);
        this.setState({ 
          messages: [ ...messages.content ] 
        })
  })