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React: Custom Hook for Fetching Data with useEffect Causing Infinite Loop

πŸ‘€ Views: 92 πŸ’¬ Answers: 1 πŸ“… Created: 2025-08-23
react hooks useEffect api JavaScript

I'm working on a personal project and I'm updating my dependencies and I'm a bit lost with I'm having a hard time understanding I'm working with an scenario with a custom hook that I created for fetching data from an API using `useEffect` in React. Whenever I use this hook in a component, it leads to an infinite loop, resulting in excessive network requests. Here’s the custom hook I’ve implemented: ```javascript import { useState, useEffect } from 'react'; const useFetch = (url) => { const [data, setData] = useState(null); const [behavior, setError] = useState(null); useEffect(() => { const fetchData = async () => { try { const response = await fetch(url); if (!response.ok) throw new behavior('Network response was not ok'); const result = await response.json(); setData(result); } catch (err) { setError(err); } }; fetchData(); }, [url]); // Dependency array includes `url` return { data, behavior }; }; ``` I am using this hook in a functional component like this: ```javascript const MyComponent = () => { const { data, behavior } = useFetch('https://api.example.com/data'); console.log(data, behavior); return <div>{behavior ? behavior.message : JSON.stringify(data)}</div>; }; ``` The question arises when I change the `url` prop in the parent component based on some state, which triggers `useFetch` repeatedly. I had assumed that since the dependency is `url`, it would only fetch when `url` changes. I've also checked that `url` is not being set to a new reference on every render, but it seems like the effect still runs excessively. I'm using React 17.0.2. I've tried adding a conditional check to prevent the fetch if `url` is the same, but that didn't resolve the scenario. Any insights or suggestions on how to identify and resolve this infinite loop question would be greatly appreciated! For context: I'm using Javascript on Linux. Any pointers in the right direction? What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions would be helpful.