Using the map() method with index in React

Using the map() method with index in React #

To use the map() method with index in React:

1. Call the map() method on the array.
2. The function you pass to the map() method gets called with the element and index.

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export default function App() {
  const employees = [
    {id: 1, name: 'Alice', salary: 100},
    {id: 2, name: 'Bob', salary: 75},
    {id: 3, name: 'Carl', salary: 125},
  ];

  return (
    <div>
      {employees.map((employee, index) => {
        return (
          <div key={index}>
            <h2>Index: {index}</h2>
            <h2>Name: {employee.name}</h2>
            <h2>Salary: {employee.salary}</h2>

            <hr />
          </div>
        );
      })}
    </div>
  );
}

The function we passed to the Array.map method gets called with each element in the array and the index of the current iteration.

On each iteration, we render the index and the name and salary properties on the employee object.

Notice that when calling the map() method inside of our JSX code, we have to use curly braces {} to wrap the call to map().

We used the index for the key prop in the examples, however it's better to use a stable unique identifier if you have one. We could have used the id property on each object.

The key prop is used internally by React for performance reasons. It helps the library make sure to only re-render the array elements that have changed.

We used an arrow function with an explicit return statement in the example. If you only need to render some JSX elements and don't use conditions, declare variables, etc, you can use an implicit return, which would make your code a little more readable.

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export default function App() {
  const employees = [
    {id: 1, name: 'Alice', salary: 100},
    {id: 2, name: 'Bob', salary: 75},
    {id: 3, name: 'Carl', salary: 125},
  ];

  return (
    <div>
      {employees.map((employee, index) => (
        <div key={index}>
          <h2>Index: {index}</h2>
          <h2>Name: {employee.name}</h2>
          <h2>Salary: {employee.salary}</h2>

          <hr />
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

We used implicit returns for the arrow function we passed to the map() method.

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const arr = ['a', 'b', 'c'];

// 👇️ explicit return
const result1 = arr.map(element => {
  return element;
});

// 👇️ implicit return
const result2 = arr.map(element => element);

You can only use implicit returns when you don't have to use conditionals or define variables in the function you pass to map().