Unleashing the Power of Automatic Batching in React 18

Amir Hosseini
2 min readJun 6, 2024

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Automatic Batching in React 18

Hello, fellow developers! Today, we’re going to explore the magic of Automatic Batching in React 18. We’ll walk through a detailed example and discuss the benefits it brings to our applications. So, let’s get started!

Understanding Automatic Batching

Batching is a technique where multiple updates are grouped together into a single render cycle. This process reduces unnecessary re-renders, leading to improved performance. In React 18, this concept is taken a step further with Automatic Batching, which applies to almost all set state updates.

The Magic of Automatic Batching

To understand the magic of Automatic Batching, let’s consider a simple counter application. In this application, we have two counters, and we have a function to increment both counters:

In previous versions of React, this function would cause two re-renders — one for each state update. However, with React 18 and Automatic Batching, these updates are batched together, resulting in just one re-render!

Implementing Automatic Batching

To enable Automatic Batching in React 18, we need to use the new React Root feature. Here’s how we can set it up:

With this setup, our incrementCounters function will automatically batch its state updates, leading to a single re-render!

The Benefits of Automatic Batching

Automatic Batching brings several benefits to our React applications:

  1. Performance Improvement: By reducing the number of re-renders, our applications become more efficient and responsive.
  2. Simplified Code: We no longer need to manually batch our state updates — React 18 handles it for us!
  3. Consistent Behavior: With Automatic Batching, the behavior of our state updates becomes more predictable and consistent.

Wrapping Up

Automatic Batching is a powerful feature in React 18 that can significantly improve the performance and simplicity of our applications. As we continue to explore React 18, it’s exciting to see how these advancements will shape the future of web development.

Remember, the journey of learning never ends. Keep exploring, keep learning, and most importantly, keep coding!

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