The Importance of Hooks

What are hooks?

Hooks can be thought of as a way to tap into features of React using a simple syntax.

A hook enables us to use features such as state, lifecycle methods, and other features of React, without having to write a lot of code.

These are the most common hooks used in React Native:

• useState
• useEffect
• useContext
• useReducer
• useMemo
• useRef

Hooks can only be used in functional components.

We’ll look at the useState hook in this lesson. As we progress through the course, we’ll look at other hooks.

The useState hook

This is the most common hook used in React Native. It is used to create and manage the state of your application.

Syntax

const [state, setState] = useState(initialState);

Here, state is the actual value of the state and setState is a function we can use to update the state. We do not need to define the setState function. It is created to update the state variable. The initialState parameter is the initial value of the state.

Example

Let’s create a simple counter using the useState hook.