React hooks useEffect only on update?

Question

If we want to restrict useEffect to run only when the component mounts, we can add second parameter of useEffect with [].

Answer 1

If you want the useEffect to run only on updates except initial mount, you can make use of useRef to keep track of initialMount with useEffect without the second parameter.

const isInitialMount = useRef(true);

useEffect(() => {
  if (isInitialMount.current) {
     isInitialMount.current = false;
  } else {
      // Your useEffect code here to be run on update
  }
});

Answer 2

You can get around it by setting the state to a non-boolean initial value (like a null value) :

  const [isCartOpen,setCartOpen] = useState(null);
  const [checkout,setCheckout] = useState({});

  useEffect(() => {

    // check to see if its the initial state
    if( isCartOpen === null ){

      // first load, set cart to real initial state, after load
      setCartOpen( false );
    }else if(isCartOpen === false){

      // normal on update callback logic
      setCartOpen( true );
    }
  }, [checkout]);