setInterval in a React app

Question

I'm still fairly new at React, but I've been grinding along slowly and I've encountered something I'm stuck on.

I am trying to build a "timer" component in React, and to be honest I don't know if I'm doing this right (or efficiently). In my code below, I set the state to return an object { currentCount: 10 } and have been toying with componentDidMount, componentWillUnmount, and render and I can only get the state to "count down" from 10 to 9.

Two-part question: What am I getting wrong? And, is there a more efficient way of going about using setTimeout (rather than using componentDidMount & componentWillUnmount)?

Thank you in advance.

import React from 'react';

var Clock = React.createClass({

  getInitialState: function() {
    return { currentCount: 10 };
  },

  componentDidMount: function() {
    this.countdown = setInterval(this.timer, 1000);
  },

  componentWillUnmount: function() {
    clearInterval(this.countdown);
  },

  timer: function() {
    this.setState({ currentCount: 10 });
  },

  render: function() {
    var displayCount = this.state.currentCount--;
    return (
      <section>
        {displayCount}
      </section>
    );
  }

});

module.exports = Clock;

Answer 1

Updated 10-second countdown using class Clock extends Component

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class Clock extends Component {
  constructor(props){
    super(props);
    this.state = {currentCount: 10}
  }
  timer() {
    this.setState({
      currentCount: this.state.currentCount - 1
    })
    if(this.state.currentCount < 1) { 
      clearInterval(this.intervalId);
    }
  }
  componentDidMount() {
    this.intervalId = setInterval(this.timer.bind(this), 1000);
  }
  componentWillUnmount(){
    clearInterval(this.intervalId);
  }
  render() {
    return(
      <div>{this.state.currentCount}</div>
    );
  }
}

module.exports = Clock;

Answer 2

I see 4 issues with your code:

• In your timer method you are always setting your current count to 10
• You try to update the state in render method
• You do not use setState method to actually change the state
• You are not storing your intervalId in the state

Let's try to fix that:

componentDidMount: function() {
   var intervalId = setInterval(this.timer, 1000);
   // store intervalId in the state so it can be accessed later:
   this.setState({intervalId: intervalId});
},

componentWillUnmount: function() {
   // use intervalId from the state to clear the interval
   clearInterval(this.state.intervalId);
},

timer: function() {
   // setState method is used to update the state
   this.setState({ currentCount: this.state.currentCount -1 });
},

render: function() {
    // You do not need to decrease the value here
    return (
      <section>
       {this.state.currentCount}
      </section>
    );
}

This would result in a timer that decreases from 10 to -N. If you want timer that decreases to 0, you can use slightly modified version:

timer: function() {
   var newCount = this.state.currentCount - 1;
   if(newCount >= 0) { 
       this.setState({ currentCount: newCount });
   } else {
       clearInterval(this.state.intervalId);
   }
},

Answer 3

Updated 10-second countdown using Hooks (a new feature proposal that lets you use state and other React features without writing a class. They’re currently in React v16.7.0-alpha).

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

const Clock = () => {
    const [currentCount, setCount] = useState(10);
    const timer = () => setCount(currentCount - 1);

    useEffect(
        () => {
            if (currentCount <= 0) {
                return;
            }
            const id = setInterval(timer, 1000);
            return () => clearInterval(id);
        },
        [currentCount]
    );

    return <div>{currentCount}</div>;
};

const App = () => <Clock />;

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));