React Intro
React.js has emerged as a powerful and widely adopted library for building user interfaces. Developed and maintained by Facebook (meta).
React.js, often simply referred to as React, is an open-source JavaScript library designed for building user interfaces or UI components. It allows developers to create reusable UI components that update in real-time based on changes in the application state. One of the key features of React is its ability to efficiently update and render components, making it ideal for developing complex and interactive user interfaces.
Core Concepts:
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Component-Based Architecture
React breaks down the UI into independent, reusable pieces called components. Each component manages its own state and renders UI based on that state. -
Declarative UI
You describe what the UI should look like, and React handles updating the DOM when your data changes. -
Virtual DOM
Instead of updating the actual DOM directly (which is slow), React uses a virtual DOM – a lightweight copy of the real DOM – to detect changes and efficiently update only the parts that changed.
Why use React?
- Efficient rendering with the virtual DOM.
- Easy to build and reuse UI components.
- Strong community, ecosystem, and tooling.
- Widely used in production by top companies.
- Great support for mobile app development via React Native.