What is React?
2 min readDec 3, 2023
React is an open-source JavaScript library used for building user interfaces or UI components, particularly for single-page applications where the content is dynamically updated without requiring a full page reload.
It was developed by Facebook and is now maintained by Facebook and a community of individual developers and companies.
Key features of React include:
- Component-Based Architecture: React follows a component-based architecture, where UIs are broken down into small, reusable components. Each component manages its state and can be composed to create complex user interfaces.
- Virtual DOM: React uses a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) to improve performance. Instead of updating the entire DOM when changes occur, React updates a virtual representation of the DOM and then efficiently updates only the necessary parts of the actual DOM.
- Declarative Syntax: React uses a declarative syntax, allowing developers to describe the desired state of a UI, and React takes care of updating the DOM to match that state. This is in contrast to imperative programming, where developers would explicitly specify each step to achieve a particular result.
- JSX (JavaScript XML): React uses a syntax extension called JSX, which allows you to write HTML-like code within JavaScript. JSX makes it easier to describe the structure of UI components.
- Unidirectional Data Flow: React follows a unidirectional data flow, meaning that data flows in a single direction through a component hierarchy. This makes it easier to understand and manage the state of an application.
React is often used in combination with other libraries and tools, such as React Router for handling navigation, Redux for state management, and Webpack for bundling and building applications. It has gained widespread adoption in the web development community and is used by many large-scale applications and websites.