When and how to use useMemo in React

React’s useMemo hook can be a helpful tool for optimizing the performance of React components when making expensive calculations.

Here’s what the React docs have to say about useMemo:

Pass a “create” function and an array of dependencies. useMemo will only recompute the memoized value when one of the dependencies has changed. This optimization helps to avoid expensive calculations on every render.

What does this mean in the context of an actual React component? Let’s imagine we have some value that requires an expensive calculation to determine: for example, mapping over a large array.

const someValue = doSomeExpensiveCalculation(a, b)

By default, React will recompute someValue every time the component rerenders, even if none of its dependencies change.

These unnecessary expensive computations could make our UI laggy. This is where useMemo comes in:

const someValue = useMemo(
  () => doSomeExpensiveCalculation(a, b),
  [a, b]
)

useMemo takes two arguments: the (expensive) function that computes the value and a dependency array. Using useMemo like this will ensure that someValue is only recomputed when one of its dependencies (a or b) changes.

I’d also recommend using this ESLint plugin for React Hooks to ensure your dependency array contains each value referenced by the function. Otherwise, you might encounter some strange or unexpected behavior.


👋 Hey I'm Devin, currently a freelance hybrid developer and designer. I have several years of experience using React, React Native, and TypeScript to build digital products for companies of all shapes and sizes, from pre-seed startups to publicly traded corporations.

Previously, I co-founded Eversound and made digital products at thoughtbot, Evolv Technology, and Polycam.

Indeed, I have a GitHub, Twitter, and LinkedIn.