React with TypeScript - define defaultProps in stateless function

Question

I'm using React with TypeScript and I've created stateless function. I've removed useless code from the example for readability.

interface CenterBoxProps extends React.Props<CenterBoxProps> {
    minHeight?: number;
}

export const CenterBox = (props: CenterBoxProps) => {
    const minHeight = props.minHeight || 250;
    const style = {
        minHeight: minHeight
    };
    return <div style={style}>Example div</div>;
};

Everything is great and this code is working correctly. But there's my question: how can I define defaultProps for CenterBox component?

As it is mentioned in react docs:

(...) They are pure functional transforms of their input, with zero boilerplate. However, you may still specify .propTypes and .defaultProps by setting them as properties on the function, just as you would set them on an ES6 class. (...)

it should be easy as:

CenterBox.defaultProps = {
    minHeight: 250
}

But this code generates TSLint error: error TS2339: Property 'defaultProps' does not exist on type '(props: CenterBoxProps) => Element'.

So again: how can I correctly define defaultProps in my above stack (React + TypeScript)?

score 40 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 28 '19 at 19:19

40

After 2 hours of looking for solution... it's working.

If you want to define defaultProps, your arrow function should look like:

export const CenterBox: React.SFC<CenterBoxProps> = props => {
    (...)
};

Then you can define props like:

CenterBox.defaultProps = { someProp: true }

Note that React.SFC is alias for React.StatelessComponent.

I hope that this question (and answer) help somebody. Make sure that you have installed newest React typings.

edited Oct 28 '19 at 19:19

anni

1,403
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answered May 16 '16 at 20:03

Mateusz Jagiełło

6,854
12
40
46

3

could you add a more specific example on how you got defaultProps working? thanks :D – Dev Doomari May 21 '16 at 08:14
This actually works. Thanks @Jurosh would you mind marking this (your) answer as correct? – intercoder Jun 11 '18 at 12:38

score 26 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 07 '19 at 09:25

26

I believe a better way than described in the React docs is simply to use Javascript / Typescript default arguments.

There's an answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/54569933/484190 but for convenience, here's an example:

import React, { FC } from "react";

interface CompProps {
  x?: number;
  y?: number;
}

const Comp: FC<CompProps> = ({ x = 10, y = 20 }) => {
  return <div>{x}, {y}</div>;
}

export default Comp;

This will allow Typescript to know that you don't have to provide the prop, and also that it will never be "undefined" inside your component

answered Feb 07 '19 at 09:25

pete otaqui

1,432
14
11

This is perfect! – Chris Edwards Sep 12 '19 at 10:10
1

Unfortunately you won't see those default props in react dev tools.. – Or Bachar Nov 12 '19 at 18:29
@pete otaqui Have you tried this with InferProps and PropTypes? I've looked everywhere and I'm not seeing a way to tell TS that the value isn't undefined – Erik Feb 03 '20 at 12:03
@OrBachar do you know why it's not possible to see the defaultProps in dev tools? Is there a way to get dev tools to show them? – daniel blythe Oct 20 '21 at 07:21

Mark Peterson · Answer 3 · 2016-10-13T20:10:44.807

13

And here's how it works for stateful functions in case others stumble on this. The key is declaring defaultProps as a static variable.

interface IBoxProps extends React.Props<IBoxProps> {
    x?: number;
    y?: number;
    height?: number;
    width?: number;
}

interface IBoxState {
    visible?: boolean;
}

export default class DrawBox extends React.Component<IBoxProps, IBoxState> {
    static defaultProps: IBoxProps;

    constructor(props: IBoxProps) {
        super(props);
    }
    ...
}

DrawBox.defaultProps = {
    x=0;
    y=0;
    height=10;
    weight=10;
};

edited Oct 13 '16 at 20:10

answered Oct 13 '16 at 20:05

Mark Peterson

147
1
4

I know this is a bit late. When I try to inherit the DrawBox class and create a sub class using: "class SubDrawBox extends DrawBox", I get the error DrawBox is not generic. How can I fix this? – Arun Apr 27 '18 at 18:28
Could you please try answering my question - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50068412 – Arun Apr 28 '18 at 12:21
4

This answer does not relate to the question. It is a class component, not a stateless functional component. – Wiktor Mociun Jun 25 '18 at 11:46
2

This helped me because I was using Class component. Thank you. As a side note, you can declare `defaultProps` like this: `static defaultProps: Partial` in case you don't want to provide a default for every property. – oyalhi Feb 12 '19 at 18:23

robstarbuck · Answer 4 · 2019-01-30T22:46:36.560

6

For Functional Components as of React 16.7.0 the 'React.SFC' type is being deprecated in favour of 'React.FC'.

Example

type TFuncComp = React.FC<{ text: string }>

const FuncComp: TFuncComp = props => <strong>{props.text}</strong>

FuncComp.defaultProps = { text: 'Empty Text' }

Deprecation Warning in Source

FC (FunctionalComponent) Type in Source

edited Jan 30 '19 at 22:46

answered Jan 30 '19 at 17:35

robstarbuck

6,893
2
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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 19 '19 at 08:52

Typing default props in function component with React.FC can result in false type error:

   type Props = {
     required: string,
   } & typeof defaultProps;

   const defaultProps = {
     optDefault: 'optDefault'
   };

   const MyComponent: React.FC<Props> = (props: Props) => (
     <ul>
       <li>required: {props.required}</li>
       <li>optDefault: {props.optDefault}</li>
     </ul>
   )
   MyComponent.defaultProps = defaultProps;


   ReactDOM.render(
     <div>
       <MyComponent
         required='required'
         optDefault='over written'
       />
       <MyComponent   /* type error  <---- false type error */
         required='required'
       />
     </div>,
     document.getElementById('app')
   );

error:

[tsserver 2741] Property 'optDefault' is missing in type '{ required: string; }' but required in type '{ optDefault: string; }'. [E]

Another solution proposed is to use Javascript's own default function parameters:

type Props = {
  required: string,
  optDefault?: string
}

const MyComponent:  React.FC<Props> = ({
  required,
  optDefault='default'
}: Props) => (
  <ul>
    <li>required: {required}</li>
    <li>optDefault: {optDefault}</li>
  </ul>
)

ReactDOM.render(
  <div>
    <MyComponent
      required='required'
      optDefault='over written'
    />
    <MyComponent
      required='required'
    />
  </div>,
  document.getElementById('app')
);

But the problem with this solution is that if you forgot to provide default, a run time bug will result:

const MyComponent: React.FC<Props> = ({
  required,
  optDefault //='optDefault' //<--- if you forgot to provide default
}: Props) => (
  <ul>
    <li>required: {required}</li>
    <li>optDefault: {optDefault}</li> {/* <-- result in bug */}
  </ul>
)

A better solution is not using React.FC at all, simply rely on Typescript type inference:

type Props = {
  required: string,
} & typeof defaultProps;

const defaultProps = {
  optDefault: 'optDefault'
};

const MyComponent = (props: Props) => (
  <ul>
    <li>required: {props.required}</li>
    <li>optDefault: {props.optDefault}</li>
  </ul>
)
MyComponent.defaultProps = defaultProps


ReactDOM.render(
  <div>
    <MyComponent
      required='required'
      optDefault='over written'
    />
    <MyComponent
      required='required'
    />
  </div>,
  document.getElementById('app')
);

Not using React.FC at all indeed worked better for me, thanks! — Matt Browne, Sep 19 '19 at 19:54
Yup, iam agree with this answer, another problem apeared when trying to used styled-component module to wrap JSX.Element like default Typescript type interface — wisnuaryadipa, Nov 25 '21 at 00:23

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 30 '19 at 15:13

-1

You can put this inside your component

static defaultProps: any;

answered Jul 30 '19 at 15:13

Israel kusayev

833
8
20

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 14 '20 at 23:16

Simplest for me is to define (partial) defaults in the defaultProps directly:

export default class TSError extends React.Component<ITSErrorProps, {}> {
  private static defaultProps: Partial<ITSErrorProps> = {
    fullPage: true,
    controlClick: true,
    doubleClick: true
  };

...

}

React with TypeScript - define defaultProps in stateless function

7 Answers7

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