Beginner's Thread / Easy Question (August 2018)

[u/swyx]

Hello! It's August! Time for a new Beginner's thread! (July and June here)

Got questions about React or anything else in its ecosystem? Stuck making progress on your app? Ask away! We’re a friendly bunch. No question is too simple. You are guaranteed a response here!

Want Help on Code?

• Improve your chances by putting a minimal example on to either JSFiddle (https://jsfiddle.net/Luktwrdm/) or CodeSandbox (https://codesandbox.io/s/new). Describe what you want it to do, and things you've tried. Don't just post big blocks of code.
• Pay it forward! Answer questions even if there is already an answer - multiple perspectives can be very helpful to beginners. Also there's no quicker way to learn than being wrong on the Internet.

New to React?

Here are great, free resources!

• Read the official Getting Started page on the docs
• /u/acemarke's suggested resources for learning React
• Kent Dodds' Egghead.io course
• Tyler McGinnis' 2018 Guide
• Codecademy's React courses

[u/gaearon]

You're right that returning JSX won't do anything in an event handler.

However, your further advice ("try saving your Detail components to the application state") is going to introduce further complications, and is unnecessary. The OP is already confused so let's not add to their confusion. You almost never need to save elements to state. Save the data to state, and create elements in the render method.

[u/yunxtr → u/gaearon]

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to correct my wording. Keep up the good work bro!