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JavaScript Building a Search Feature

Posted by Julius Slusnys
Julius Slusnys
Courses Plus Student 8,637 Points

Function performSearch from parent component is called in child component

Can someone get a general explanation on how a function from App component was passed and linked in the child component? More reading on best practices for such a schema.

1 Answer

Dom McKellar
Dom McKellar
6,052 Points
Dom McKellar
Dom McKellar
6,052 Points

Remember, it's just JavaScript under the hood. Functions are still objects, therefore, they can be passed as arguments. So rather than passing some primitive value like a string <MyComponent someProp="foo"/> or a number <MyComponent someProp={100}/>, in this case you're simply passing a function as the argument <MyComponent someProp={myFunction}/>. By passing it along as a prop, you're able to both access and invoke it in your child component. Think of it like this:

var myFunction = function() {
  // ...code
}

var childComponent = function(onFunction) {
  onFunction();
  // ...code
}

// React will call it later on in the component lifecycle:
childComponent(myFunction)