Improving React Performance with Bailout Techniques

When building a React application, ensuring it runs efficiently and doesn't waste resources is important. One way to do this is by using a technique called bailout.

What is Bailout in React?

When we talk about bailout in React, we're talking about preventing unnecessary re-rendering of components. A re-render happens when a component's state or props change and React updates the component's output to reflect those changes. However, sometimes a component's output doesn't need to change even when its props change. In these cases, we can use a bailout to prevent the component from re-rendering unnecessarily.

How to Implement Bailout in React?

There are a few ways to implement bailout in React. One common way is to use a Higher Order Component (HOC) called React.memo(). This HOC checks whether a component's props have changed since the last render and, if not, it doesn't re-render the component. Another way to implement a bailout is to use the shouldComponentUpdate() lifecycle method. This method checks whether the component's props or state have changed; if not, it doesn't re-render the component.

Here's an example of using React.memo() to implement bailout in a functional component:

import React from 'react';
const MyComponent = React.memo(props => {
  // Component logic here
});

Here MyComponent is wrapped with React.memo(). This ensures that the component only re-renders if its props have changed since the last render.

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class MyComponent extends Component {
  shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps, nextState) {
    // Return true to update the component, false otherwise
  }
  render() {
    // Component logic here
  }
}

MyComponent implements the shouldComponentUpdate() lifecycle method. This method checks whether the component's props or state have changed since the last render and returns a boolean indicating whether or not the component should re-render.

Passing children components with children props is an underrated powerful React pattern.

//instesd of this
const App = () => {
  return <Parent />
}
const Parent = () => {
  return <Child />
}
//===============================================
//use this
const App = () => {
  return <Parent><Child /> </Parent>
} 
const Parent = ({children}) => {
  return <>{children}</>
}

In the snippet above, because the Child component is passed as the children prop, the createElement is not called in this case!

This is due to the "bailout" mechanism that React applies here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the bailout is a technique for preventing unnecessary re-rendering of components in React. It's important because it can help improve the performance of our applications by reducing the number of re-renders that occur. We can implement bailout using tools like React.memo() or the shouldComponentUpdate() lifecycle method. By using these techniques, we can build efficient, performant React applications.

---

Thanks a lot for reading till the end 🙏 If you liked the article, please give likes and share it with your others.

Email: atul19251@gmail.com

Web: https://iamatul.netlify.app/

Github: https://github.com/iamrajput

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atul-kumar-singh-673357102/