Context API and Global State Management in React

Context API and Global State Management in React

Flames In Tech
2 min readSep 4, 2023

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Traditionally, state was managed in React using props. However, props can be difficult to use for managing global state, as they can quickly become messy and difficult to track.

The Context API is a feature in React that makes it easier to manage global state. The Context API allows you to create a single source of truth for your state, and then access that state from any component in your application.

To use the Context API, you first need to create a context object. A context object is a JavaScript object that contains the state that you want to share. You can then create a provider component that wraps the components that need to access the state. The provider component will provide the state to the child components.

Finally, you can use the `useContext()` hook to access the state from any component in your application.

Here are the steps involved:

1. Create a new React project.
2. Create a context object called `MyContext`.
3. Add the state that you want to share to the `MyContext` object.
4. Create a provider component called `MyContextProvider`.
5. Wrap the components that need to access the state with the `MyContextProvider` component.
6. Use the `useContext()` hook to access the state from any component in your application.

Here is an example of how to use the Context API to manage global state:

import React, { createContext, useContext } from "react";

const MyContext = createContext();

const MyContextProvider = ({ children }) => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

return (
<MyContext.Provider value={count}>
{children}
</MyContext.Provider>
);
};

const MyComponent = () => {
const count = useContext(MyContext);

return (
<div>
The count is: {count}
</div>
);
};

export default MyContextProvider;

This code creates a context object called `MyContext`. The `MyContext` object contains a state variable called `count`. The `MyContextProvider` component wraps the `MyComponent` component and provides the `count` state to the `MyComponent` component. The `MyComponent` component uses the `useContext()` hook to access the `count` state.

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