A Simple Guide to Context in React

Context is a powerful feature in React that allows you to share state between components without having to pass props down manually at every level. Prop Drilling is a term used to describe the process of passing props from a parent component to a child component, then to another child component, and so on. This can be a tedious process, especially if you have a deeply nested component tree. Context solves this problem by allowing you to pass data through the component tree without having to pass props down manually at every level.

NOTE: Context is not a replacement for Redux or other state management libraries. It is meant to be used for sharing state between components that are closely related, such as siblings or cousins. This a post assumes you have a basic understanding of React and JavaScript.

Creating a Context (React)

The first step in using Context is to create a context object. This is done using the createContext method from the React library. The createContext method takes an initial value as an argument and returns a context object. The initial value is used when no provider is found in the component tree. This is useful for testing purposes or when you want to provide a default value for your context.

import * as React from 'react';
 
const MyContext = React.createContext('default value');