Welcome to the "React Basics" series! This series is designed to help beginners understand the fundamentals of React, a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Whether you're new to React or looking to brush up on your skills, this series will guide you through the essential concepts and practices.

Table of Contents

What is React?

React is a JavaScript library created by Facebook for building user interfaces. It allows developers to create reusable UI components and efficiently update and render large applications. React is known for its virtual DOM, which helps optimize rendering performance.

React Logo

React is widely used in the industry and has a strong community support. It's also the foundation of other popular frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby.

Setting Up Your Development Environment

Before you start building with React, you need to set up your development environment. This typically involves installing Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager). You can download Node.js from here.

Once you have Node.js installed, you can create a new React project using the following command:

npx create-react-app my-app

This will create a new directory called my-app with all the necessary files and dependencies to start building your React application.

Components

React applications are built using components. Components are reusable and encapsulated pieces of code that represent parts of your UI. There are two types of components in React: functional components and class components.

Functional Components:

const App = () => {
  return <h1>Hello, World!</h1>;
};

export default App;

Class Components:

class App extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <h1>Hello, World!</h1>;
  }
}

export default App;

Both functional and class components can be used to build complex UIs.

Continue to the next section to learn more about components in React!