eslint-plugin-react-hooks-addons

eslint-plugin-react-hooks-addons

ESLint plugin that finds unused dependencies in React Hooks.

Why?

eslint-plugin-react-hooks is awesome for linting the dependency array of React Hooks. However, it doesn't do one thing: unused dependencies in the useEffect or useLayoutEffect hooks are not reported. Variables, which are included in useEffect's dependency array but not used in its function scope, are perfectly valid in certain use cases. But it might also be a programmatic error which causes the effect hook to run unintentionally.

Take the following code as an example:

const [user1, setUser1] = useState();
const [user2, setUser2] = useState();
useEffect(() => {
  fetch(`someUrl/${user1}`).then(/* ... */);
  fetch(`someUrl/${user2}`).then(/* ... */);
}, [user1, user2]);

Next day you update the code and remove the second fetch but forget to remove user2 from the dependency array:

const [user1, setUser1] = useState();
const [user2, setUser2] = useState();
useEffect(() => {
  fetch(`someUrl/${user1}`).then(/* ... */);
}, [user1, user2]);

Then the useEffect will run whenever user1 or user2 changes, which is probably not your intention. Similar errors occur more frequently when the hook updater function is large and there is a long dependency array. This eslint plugin checks and reports this kind of error.

What if I have a value which is not used in the hook function scope but I want the effect hook to run whenever that value has changed?

You could prepend a /* effect dep */ comment to the value in dependency array then it will be skipped during linting. It brings an addition benefit: the value is explicitly marked as effectful so that other people coming across the code will understand it's not a programmatic error.

useEffect(() => {
  fetch(`someUrl/${user1}`).then(/* ... */);
- }, [user1, user2]);
+ }, [user1, /* effect dep */ user2]);

Install

With npm

npm install -D eslint-plugin-react-hooks-addons

Or with Yarn

yarn add -D eslint-plugin-react-hooks-addons

Usage

In your ESLint configuration file:

{
  "plugins": ["react-hooks-addons"],
  "rules": {
    "react-hooks-addons/no-unused-deps": "warn"
  }
}

Explicitly mark a dependency as effectful with /* effect dep */ comment:

useEffect(() => {
  // ...
}, [unusedVar, /* effect dep */ effectVar]);

Then only the unusedVar will be reported as an unused dependency.

Note: this eslint plugin is supposed to work in tandem with eslint-plugin-react-hooks, as it doesn't check things that have already been reported by that plugin.

License

MIT Licensed.