CodexBloom - Programming Q&A Platform

implementing React useEffect not triggering on state change in nested object

👀 Views: 25 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-17
react hooks useEffect javascript

I'm converting an old project and I've looked through the documentation and I'm still confused about I'm working with an scenario where my `useEffect` isn't triggering as expected when a nested property of a state object changes. I'm working with React 17 and managing state with the `useState` hook. I have an object with a structure that includes a user profile, and I want to perform a side effect whenever the `email` field is updated. Here’s an example of my state and effect: ```javascript import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react'; const UserProfile = () => { const [profile, setProfile] = useState({ name: 'John Doe', email: 'john@example.com', preferences: { newsletter: true, }, }); useEffect(() => { console.log('Email updated:', profile.email); // Imagine some API call here to notify email change }, [profile.email]); const changeEmail = (newEmail) => { setProfile((prev) => ({ ...prev, email: newEmail })); }; return ( <div> <h1>{profile.name}</h1> <p>{profile.email}</p> <button onClick={() => changeEmail('newemail@example.com')}>Change Email</button> </div> ); }; ``` The `useEffect` should ideally log the new email whenever I press the button, but it doesn’t seem to trigger. I’ve confirmed that `changeEmail` is being called correctly, and the state does update (I can see the new email reflected in the UI). However, the console log within `useEffect` doesn’t execute. I've also tried logging `profile` within the effect with `console.log(profile)` to see if it's getting the right object, but it remains static. Could the question be related to how I’m managing the state or how React handles `useEffect` dependencies? Any insights would be greatly appreciated! I want to understand if there's an scenario with my state update pattern or if there's something I've overlooked when using `useEffect`. This is part of a larger application I'm building. Thanks in advance! For reference, this is a production desktop app. Is this even possible?