Don't add reference types in your dependency lists

useEffect is an important hook for creating side effects in React. However, because of the way JavaScript is, there are certain caveats with how the dependency lists are processed in React.

How you probably use your useEffect dependencies:

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { createConnection } from './chat.js';

const serverUrl = 'https://localhost:1234';

function ChatRoom({ roomId }) {
  const [message, setMessage] = useState('');

  const options = {
    serverUrl: serverUrl,
    roomId: roomId
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    const connection = createConnection(options);
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  }, [options]); // is this how you use it?

  return (
    <>
      <h1>Welcome to the {roomId} room!</h1>
      <input value={message} onChange={e => setMessage(e.target.value)} />
    </>
  );
}

export default function App() {
  const [roomId, setRoomId] = useState('general');
  return (
    <>
      <label>
        Choose the chat room:{' '}
        <select
          value={roomId}
          onChange={e => setRoomId(e.target.value)}
        >
          <option value="general">general</option>
          <option value="travel">travel</option>
          <option value="music">music</option>
        </select>
      </label>
      <hr />
      <ChatRoom roomId={roomId} />
    </>
  );
}

What’s the issue with this?

The problem with this is that since options is a reference type, React sees it as a different object between renders - this makes the dependency check occurring in the useEffect useless since it’s always going to be new.

// During the first render
const options1 = { serverUrl: 'https://localhost:1234', roomId: 'music' };

// During the next render
const options2 = { serverUrl: 'https://localhost:1234', roomId: 'music' };

// These are two different objects!
console.log(Object.is(options1, options2)); // false

Object and function dependencies create risk that your Effect will re-synchronize more often than you need

Solution

Whenever possible, avoid using objects and functions in your useEffect dependencies.

1. Move static objects and functions outside the component (same works for functions)

const options = {
  serverUrl: 'https://localhost:1234',
  roomId: 'music'
};

function ChatRoom() {
  const [message, setMessage] = useState('');

  useEffect(() => {
    const connection = createConnection(options); // proves to the linter that options is not reactive
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  }, []); // ✅ All dependencies declared
  // ...

2. Move dynamic objects and functions inside your Effect

This way, the options object is no longer a dependency of the effect. The only dependency is the non-primitive roomId

const serverUrl = 'https://localhost:1234';

function ChatRoom({ roomId }) {
  const [message, setMessage] = useState('');

  useEffect(() => {
    const options = {
      serverUrl: serverUrl,
      roomId: roomId
    };
    const connection = createConnection(options);
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  }, [roomId]); // ✅ All dependencies declared
  // ...

3. Read primitive values from objects

function ChatRoom({ options }) {
  const [message, setMessage] = useState('');

  const { roomId, serverUrl } = options;
  useEffect(() => {
    const connection = createConnection({
      roomId: roomId,
      serverUrl: serverUrl
    });
    connection.connect();
    return () => connection.disconnect();
  }, [roomId, serverUrl]); // ✅ All dependencies declared
  // ...