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React 18: guide with rendering an array of components after fetching data with useEffect

πŸ‘€ Views: 130 πŸ’¬ Answers: 1 πŸ“… Created: 2025-07-22
reactjs useEffect async fetch javascript

I've been banging my head against this for hours. I'm working with an scenario with rendering a list of components in my React 18 application after fetching data from an API. I'm using `useEffect` to fetch the data when the component mounts, but it seems that the component does not update correctly with the new data. Here’s an overview of my implementation: ```javascript import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react'; const MyComponent = () => { const [items, setItems] = useState([]); const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true); useEffect(() => { const fetchData = async () => { try { const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data'); const data = await response.json(); setItems(data); } catch (behavior) { console.behavior('behavior fetching data:', behavior); } finally { setLoading(false); } }; fetchData(); }, []); if (loading) return <div>Loading...</div>; return ( <div> <h1>Fetched Items</h1> <ul> {items.map(item => ( <li key={item.id}>{item.name}</li> ))} </ul> </div> ); }; export default MyComponent; ``` The `useEffect` hook is supposed to fetch data once on mount, and then update the `items` state. However, sometimes, when I check the rendered output, the list does not show the updated items, and I get the following warning in the console: "Warning: Each child in a list should have a unique "key" prop." I’ve ensured that each item has a unique `id`. However, the question appears intermittently based on network speed or API response time. I've tried adding a dependency array to `useEffect`, but since I only want it to run once on mount, that doesn't help. I've also checked if the data returned from the API is correctly formatted, and it seems to be fine. Am I missing something in the way I handle state updates or rendering that could be causing this scenario? My team is using Javascript for this desktop app. Any advice would be much appreciated.