Perform debounce in React.js

Question

How do you perform debounce in React.js?

I want to debounce the handleOnChange.

I tried with debounce(this.handleOnChange, 200) but it doesn\'t

Answer 1

Uncontrolled Components

You can use the event.persist() method.

An example follows using underscore's _.debounce():

var SearchBox = React.createClass({

  componentWillMount: function () {
     this.delayedCallback = _.debounce(function (event) {
       // `event.target` is accessible now
     }, 1000);
  },

  onChange: function (event) {
    event.persist();
    this.delayedCallback(event);
  },

  render: function () {
    return (
      <input type="search" onChange={this.onChange} />
    );
  }

});

Edit: See this JSFiddle

---

Controlled Components

Update: the example above shows an uncontrolled component. I use controlled elements all the time so here's another example of the above, but without using the event.persist() "trickery".

A JSFiddle is available as well. Example without underscore

var SearchBox = React.createClass({
    getInitialState: function () {
        return {
            query: this.props.query
        };
    },

    componentWillMount: function () {
       this.handleSearchDebounced = _.debounce(function () {
           this.props.handleSearch.apply(this, [this.state.query]);
       }, 500);
    },

    onChange: function (event) {
      this.setState({query: event.target.value});
      this.handleSearchDebounced();
    },

    render: function () {
      return (
        <input type="search"
               value={this.state.query}
               onChange={this.onChange} />
      );
    }
});


var Search = React.createClass({
    getInitialState: function () {
        return {
            result: this.props.query
        };
    },

    handleSearch: function (query) {
        this.setState({result: query});
    },

    render: function () {
      return (
        <div id="search">
          <SearchBox query={this.state.result}
                     handleSearch={this.handleSearch} />
          <p>You searched for: <strong>{this.state.result}</strong></p>
        </div>
      );
    }
});

React.render(<Search query="Initial query" />, document.body);

---

Edit: updated examples and JSFiddles to React 0.12

Edit: updated examples to address the issue raised by Sebastien Lorber

Edit: updated with jsfiddle that does not use underscore and uses plain javascript debounce.

Answer 2

FYI

Here is another PoC implementation:

• without any libraries (e.g. lodash) for debouncing
• using React Hooks API

I hope it helps :)

import React, { useState, useEffect, ChangeEvent } from 'react';

export default function DebouncedSearchBox({
  inputType,
  handleSearch,
  placeholder,
  debounceInterval,
}: {
  inputType?: string;
  handleSearch: (q: string) => void;
  placeholder: string;
  debounceInterval: number;
}) {
  const [query, setQuery] = useState<string>('');
  const [timer, setTimer] = useState<NodeJS.Timer | undefined>();

  useEffect(() => {
    if (timer) {
      clearTimeout(timer);
    }
    setTimer(setTimeout(() => {
      handleSearch(query);
    }, debounceInterval));
  }, [query]);

  const handleOnChange = (e: ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>): void => {
    setQuery(e.target.value);
  };

  return (
    <input
      type={inputType || 'text'}
      className="form-control"
      placeholder={placeholder}
      value={query}
      onChange={handleOnChange}
    />
  );
}

Answer 3

you can use tlence tlence

function log(server) {
  console.log('connecting to', server);
}

const debounceLog = debounce(log, 5000);
// just run last call to 5s
debounceLog('local');
debounceLog('local');
debounceLog('local');
debounceLog('local');
debounceLog('local');
debounceLog('local');

Answer 4

If you are using redux you can do this in a very elegant way with middleware. You can define a Debounce middleware as:

var timeout;
export default store => next => action => {
  const { meta = {} } = action;
  if(meta.debounce){
    clearTimeout(timeout);
    timeout = setTimeout(() => {
      next(action)
    }, meta.debounce)
  }else{
    next(action)
  }
}

You can then add debouncing to action creators, such as:

export default debouncedAction = (payload) => ({
  type : 'DEBOUNCED_ACTION',
  payload : payload,
  meta : {debounce : 300}
}

There's actually already middleware you can get off npm to do this for you.

Answer 5

Using ES6 CLASS and React 15.x.x & lodash.debounce Im using React's refs here since event losses the this bind internally.

class UserInput extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      userInput: ""
    };
    this.updateInput = _.debounce(this.updateInput, 500);
  }


  updateInput(userInput) {
    this.setState({
      userInput
    });
    //OrderActions.updateValue(userInput);//do some server stuff
  }


  render() {
    return ( <div>
      <p> User typed: {
        this.state.userInput
      } </p>
      <input ref = "userValue" onChange = {() => this.updateInput(this.refs.userValue.value) } type = "text" / >
      </div>
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render( <
  UserInput / > ,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.5/lodash.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>


<div id="root"></div>

Answer 6

There's a use-debounce package that you can use with ReactJS hooks.

From package's README:

import { useDebounce } from 'use-debounce';

export default function Input() {
  const [text, setText] = useState('Hello');
  const [value] = useDebounce(text, 1000);

  return (
    <div>
      <input
        defaultValue={'Hello'}
        onChange={(e) => {
          setText(e.target.value);
        }}
      />
      <p>Actual value: {text}</p>
      <p>Debounce value: {value}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

As you can see from the example above, it is set up to update the variable value only once every second (1000 milliseconds).