Can I update a component's props in React.js?

Question

After starting to work with React.js, it seems like props are intended to be static (passed in from the parent component), while state changes base

Answer 1

if you use recompose, use mapProps to make new props derived from incoming props

Edit for example:

import { compose, mapProps } from 'recompose';

const SomeComponent = ({ url, onComplete }) => (
  {url ? (
    <View />
  ) : null}
)

export default compose(
  mapProps(({ url, storeUrl, history, ...props }) => ({
    ...props,
    onClose: () => {
      history.goBack();
    },
    url: url || storeUrl,
  })),
)(SomeComponent);

Answer 2

PROPS

A React component should use props to store information that can be changed, but can only be changed by a different component.

STATE

A React component should use state to store information that the component itself can change.

A good example is already provided by Valéry.

Answer 3

Much has changed with hooks, e.g. componentWillReceiveProps turned into useEffect+useRef (as shown in this other SO answer), but Props are still Read-Only, so only the caller method should update it.

Answer 4

Props can change when a component's parent renders the component again with different properties. I think this is mostly an optimization so that no new component needs to be instantiated.

Answer 5

Trick to update props if they are array :

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import {
  AppRegistry,
  StyleSheet,
  Text,
  View,
  Button
} from 'react-native';

class Counter extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
      this.state = {
        count: this.props.count
      }
    }
  increment(){
    console.log("this.props.count");
    console.log(this.props.count);
    let count = this.state.count
    count.push("new element");
    this.setState({ count: count})
  }
  render() {

    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Text>{ this.state.count.length }</Text>
        <Button
          onPress={this.increment.bind(this)}
          title={ "Increase" }
        />
      </View>
    );
  }
}

Counter.defaultProps = {
 count: []
}

export default Counter
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'center',
    backgroundColor: '#F5FCFF',
  },
  welcome: {
    fontSize: 20,
    textAlign: 'center',
    margin: 10,
  },
  instructions: {
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: '#333333',
    marginBottom: 5,
  },
});

Answer 6

A component cannot update its own props unless they are arrays or objects (having a component update its own props even if possible is an anti-pattern), but can update its state and the props of its children.

For instance, a Dashboard has a speed field in its state, and passes it to a Gauge child thats displays this speed. Its render method is just return <Gauge speed={this.state.speed} />. When the Dashboard calls this.setState({speed: this.state.speed + 1}), the Gauge is re-rendered with the new value for speed.

Just before this happens, Gauge's componentWillReceiveProps is called, so that the Gauge has a chance to compare the new value to the old one.