Mastering React Functions: Hooks and Components for Building Dynamic Blogs in 2025

React functions, primarily functional components and hooks, are essential for building modern, dynamic web applications. Below, I’ll outline key React functions (focusing on functional components and hooks), their use cases, and provide examples tailored for a blog on your website. The examples will be practical for a blog context, such as displaying posts, handling user interactions, or fetching data.

Key React Functions and Their Use Cases:

Functional Components

• What: Functions that return JSX to define UI elements. They are the building blocks of React apps since the introduction of hooks.
• Use Case: Create reusable UI components like a blog post card, header, or footer for your website.
• Where: Used everywhere in your app to structure the UI (e.g., a blog post list, individual post, or comment section).

useState Hook

• What: Manages state in functional components.
• Use Case: Track user input (e.g., a comment form), toggle UI elements (e.g., a “read more” button), or manage loading states.
• Where: In components that need dynamic data, like a form for submitting comments or a button to expand a blog post.

useEffect Hook

• What: Handles side effects like data fetching, subscriptions, or DOM updates.
• Use Case: Fetch blog posts from an API when the component mounts or update the page title based on the current post.
• Where: In components that interact with external data (e.g., fetching blog posts) or need lifecycle-like behavior.

useContext Hook

• What: Accesses context to share data across components without prop drilling.
• Use Case: Share theme settings (e.g., dark/light mode) or user authentication status across your blog app.
• Where: In components that need global data, like a theme toggle or user profile in the blog header.

useReducer Hook

• What: Manages complex state logic with a reducer function.
• Use Case: Handle form state with multiple fields (e.g., a blog post editor) or manage a list of comments with add/delete actions.
• Where: In components with complex state transitions, like a blog post creation form.

useRef Hook

• What: Creates a mutable reference that persists across renders or accesses DOM elements.
• Use Case: Focus on a comment input field or store a reference to a DOM element for animations.
• Where: In interactive components like forms or scrollable blog sections.

useMemo Hook

• What: Memoizes expensive computations to optimize performance.
• Use Case: Optimize rendering of a filtered blog post list based on categories or tags.
• Where: In components with heavy computations, like filtering or sorting blog posts.

useCallback Hook

• What: Memoizes functions to prevent unnecessary re-renders.
• Use Case: Pass stable callback functions to child components, like a comment submission handler.
• Where: In parent components passing callbacks to children, such as a comment form component.

Custom Hooks

• What: Reusable functions encapsulating logic using other hooks.
• Use Case: Create a custom hook to fetch and manage blog post data or handle form validation.
• Where: In reusable logic across multiple components, like fetching posts or handling user authentication.