reactjs / reactjs/react.dev

Wrong usage of useEffect in custom hook docs

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JavaScript
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Description

The Building Your Own Hooks page suggests invoking the useEffect hook without passing in an empty dependency array

function useFriendStatus(friendID) {
  const [isOnline, setIsOnline] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    function handleStatusChange(status) {
      setIsOnline(status.isOnline);
    }

    ChatAPI.subscribeToFriendStatus(friendID, handleStatusChange);
    return () => {
      ChatAPI.unsubscribeFromFriendStatus(friendID, handleStatusChange);
    };
  });

  return isOnline;
}

As there is no dependency array passed to useEffect, this would cause multiple multiple un/subscribe API calls. Shouldn't the example snippet have an empty dependency array?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the linked Building Your Own Hooks page and the useEffect example shown in the issue. Confirm the dependency-array guidance against the documented hook behavior, then update the example if needed so its subscription lifecycle is correct and the page no longer suggests repeated subscriptions.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, react
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
Under an hour
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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