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When working with React, you often hear about JSX. JSX is a syntax extension for JavaScript that allows you to write HTML-like code within your JavaScript files. It’s a powerful tool that makes writing React components more intuitive and readable. In this article, we’ll explore what JSX is and how it’s used in reacts components, along togther with reacts popular software paradigm functional programing.

What is JSX?
JSX stands for JavaScript XML. It’s a syntax extension for JavaScript that allows you to write HTML-like code in your React components. JSX code looks similar to HTML but is actually compiled down to regular JavaScript functions by tools like Babel.

JSX in Functional Components
Functional components are a type of component in React that are defined as JavaScript functions. They are simple and easy to understand, making them a popular choice for many React developers. JSX can be used inside functional components to describe the UI elements that the component will render.

JSX Example

import React from 'react';

const Greeting = ({ name }) => {
  return <h1>Hello, {name}!</h1>;
};

export default Greeting;

In this example, the Greeting component is a functional component that takes a name prop and renders a greeting message using JSX. The JSX syntax allows us to write HTML-like code directly inside the JavaScript function, making it easier to visualize the rendered output.

JSX Expressions
JSX allows you to embed JavaScript expressions inside curly braces {}. This allows you to dynamically generate content based on props or other variables. For example:

const Greeting = ({ name }) => {
  return <h1>Hello, {name.toUpperCase()}!</h1>;
};

In this modified Greeting component, the name prop is converted to uppercase using a JavaScript expression inside the JSX code.

JSX Attributes
JSX also allows you to specify attributes for HTML elements, just like in regular HTML. For example:

const MyComponent = () => {
  return <a href="https://example.com">Click here</a>;
};

In this example, the href attribute is used to create a hyperlink in the rendered output.

JSX Alternatives

To better understand jsx, we can take a look at jsx alternatives and understand what it dose and why it is such a popular approach to writing HTML inside a Javascript file.

Pure JavaScript: Instead of using JSX, you can write React components using pure JavaScript. This involves using React.createElement to create elements directly. For example:

const element = React.createElement('h1', null, 'Hello, world!');

Hyperscript: Hyperscript is a concise way of creating virtual DOM elements. Libraries like hyperscript-helpers provide a clean syntax for creating React elements. For example:

const { div, h1 } = require('hyperscript-helpers')(React.createElement);

const element = div([
  h1('Hello, world!')
]);

React without JSX: You can configure Babel to compile JSX to React.createElement calls at build time. This allows you to write JSX-like syntax without using JSX directly. For example:

const element = React.createElement('h1', null, 'Hello, world!');

Template Strings: Template strings can be used to create JSX-like syntax using plain JavaScript. This approach can be less readable and more error-prone compared to JSX. For example:

const element = `
  <div>
    <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
  </div>
`;

JSX Factory Function: You can define a custom function to replace JSX syntax with plain JavaScript function calls. This allows you to customize the behavior of JSX. For example:

function createElement(tag, props, ...children) {
  return {
    tag,
    props,
    children
  };
}

const element = createElement('h1', null, 'Hello, world!');

These alternatives provide different ways to create React elements without using JSX directly. Each approach has its own pros and cons, so it’s important to choose the one that best fits your project requirements and coding style.

Conclusion
JSX is a powerful tool in React that allows you to write HTML-like code within your JavaScript files. It makes writing React components more intuitive and readable, especially in functional components. By using JSX, you can easily describe the UI of your application and create dynamic content based on props and state.

Lior Amsalem

Lior Amsalem embarked on his software engineering journey in the early 2000s, Diving into Pascal with a keen interest in creating, developing, and working on new technologies. Transitioning from his early teenage years as a freelancer, Lior dedicated countless hours to expanding his knowledge within the software engineering domain. He immersed himself in learning new development languages and technologies such as JavaScript, React, backend, frontend, devops, nextjs, nodejs, mongodb, mysql and all together end to end development, while also gaining insights into business development and idea implementation.

Through his blog, Lior aims to share his interests and entrepreneurial journey, driven by a desire for independence and freedom from traditional 9-5 work constraints.