Push method in React Hooks (useState)?

Question

How to push element inside useState array React hook? Is that as an old method in react state? Or something new?

E.g. setState push example ?

Answer 1

When you use useState, you can get an update method for the state item:

const [theArray, setTheArray] = useState(initialArray);

then, when you want to add a new element, you use that function and pass in the new array or a function that will create the new array. Normally the latter, since state updates are asynchronous and sometimes batched:

setTheArray(oldArray => [...oldArray, newElement]);

Sometimes you can get away without using that callback form, if you only update the array in handlers for certain specific user events like click (but not like mousemove):

setTheArray([...theArray, newElement]);

The events for which React ensures that rendering is flushed are the "discrete events" listed here.

Live Example (passing a callback into setTheArray):

const {useState, useCallback} = React;
function Example() {
    const [theArray, setTheArray] = useState([]);
    const addEntryClick = () => {
        setTheArray(oldArray => [...oldArray, `Entry ${oldArray.length}`]);
    };
    return [
        <input type="button" onClick={addEntryClick} value="Add" />,
        <div>{theArray.map(entry =>
          <div>{entry}</div>
        )}
        </div>
    ];
}

ReactDOM.render(
    <Example />,
    document.getElementById("root")
);

<div id="root"></div>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.8.1/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.8.1/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>

Because the only update to theArray in there is the one in a click event (one of the "discrete" events), I could get away with a direct update in addEntry:

const {useState, useCallback} = React;
function Example() {
    const [theArray, setTheArray] = useState([]);
    const addEntryClick = () => {
        setTheArray([...theArray, `Entry ${theArray.length}`]);
    };
    return [
        <input type="button" onClick={addEntryClick} value="Add" />,
        <div>{theArray.map(entry =>
          <div>{entry}</div>
        )}
        </div>
    ];
}

ReactDOM.render(
    <Example />,
    document.getElementById("root")
);

<div id="root"></div>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.8.1/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.8.1/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>

Answer 2

setTheArray([...theArray, newElement]); is the simplest answer but be careful for the mutation of items in theArray. Use deep cloning of array items.