With useEffect, how can I skip applying an effect upon the initial render?

With React's new Effect Hooks, I can tell React to skip applying an effect if certain values haven't changed between re-renders - Example from React's docs:

useEffect(() => {
  document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`;
}, [count]); // Only re-run the effect if count changes

But the example above applies the effect upon initial render, and upon subsequent re-renders where count has changed. How can I tell React to skip the effect on the initial render?

As the guide states,

> The Effect Hook, useEffect, adds the ability to perform side effects from a function component. It serves the same purpose as componentDidMount, componentDidUpdate, and componentWillUnmount in React classes, but unified into a single API.

In this example from the guide it's expected that count is 0 only on initial render:

const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

So it will work as componentDidUpdate with additional check:

useEffect(() => {
  if (count)
    document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`;
}, [count]);

This is basically how custom hook that can be used instead of useEffect may work:

function useDidUpdateEffect(fn, inputs) {
  const didMountRef = useRef(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (didMountRef.current) { 
      return fn();
    }
    didMountRef.current = true;
  }, inputs);
}

Credits go to @Tholle for suggesting useRef instead of setState.

Here's a custom hook that just provides a boolean flag to indicate whether the current render is the first render (when the component was mounted). It's about the same as some of the other answers but you can use the flag in a useEffect or the render function or anywhere else in the component you want. Maybe someone can propose a better name.

import { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';

export const useIsMount = () => {
  const isMountRef = useRef(true);
  useEffect(() => {
    isMountRef.current = false;
  }, []);
  return isMountRef.current;
};

You can use it like:

import React, { useEffect } from 'react';

import { useIsMount } from './useIsMount';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const isMount = useIsMount();

  useEffect(() => {
    if (isMount) {
      console.log('First Render');
    } else {
      console.log('Subsequent Render');
    }
  });

  return isMount ? <p>First Render</p> : <p>Subsequent Render</p>;
};

And here's a test for it if you're interested:

import { renderHook } from '@testing-library/react-hooks';

import { useIsMount } from '../useIsMount';

describe('useIsMount', () => {
  it('should be true on first render and false after', () => {
    const { result, rerender } = renderHook(() => useIsMount());
    expect(result.current).toEqual(true);
    rerender();
    expect(result.current).toEqual(false);
    rerender();
    expect(result.current).toEqual(false);
  });
});

Our use case was to hide animated elements if the initial props indicate they should be hidden. On later renders if the props changed, we did want the elements to animate out.

I found a solution that is more simple and has no need to use another hook, but it has drawbacks.

useEffect(() => {
  // skip initial render
  return () => {
    // do something with dependency
  }
}, [dependency])

This is just an example that there are others ways of doing it if your case is very simple.

The drawback of doing this is that you can't have a cleanup effect and will only execute when the dependency array changes the second time.

This isn't recommended to use and you should use what the other answers are saying, but I only added this here so people know that there is more than one way of doing this.

Edit:

Just to make it more clear, you shouldn't use this approach to solving the problem in the question (skipping the initial render), this is only for teaching purpose that shows you can do the same thing in different ways. If you need to skip the initial render, please use the approach on other answers.

I use a regular state variable instead of a ref.

// Initializing didMount as false
const [didMount, setDidMount] = useState(false)

// Setting didMount to true upon mounting
useEffect(() => { setDidMount(true) }, [])

// Now that we have a variable that tells us wether or not the component has
// mounted we can change the behavior of the other effect based on that
const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
useEffect(() => {
  if (didMount) document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`
}, [count])

We can refactor the didMount logic as a custom hook like this.

function useDidMount() {
  const [didMount, setDidMount] = useState(false)
  useEffect(() => { setDidMount(true) }, [])

  return didMount
}

Finally, we can use it in our component like this.

const didMount = useDidMount()

const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
useEffect(() => {
  if (didMount) document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`
}, [count])

---

UPDATE Using useRef hook to avoid the extra rerender (Thanks to @TomEsterez for the suggestion)

This time our custom hook returns a function returning our ref's current value. U can use the ref directly too, but I like this better.

function useDidMount() {
  const mountRef = useRef(false);

  useEffect(() => { mountRef.current = true }, []);

  return () => mountRef.current;
}

Usage

const MyComponent = () => {
  const didMount = useDidMount();

  useEffect(() => {
    if (didMount()) // do something
    else // do something else
  })

  return (
    <div>something</div>
  );
}

On a side note, I've never had to use this hook and there are probably better ways to handle this which would be more aligned with the React programming model.

Let me introduce to you react-use.

npm install react-use

Wanna run:

only after first render? -------> useUpdateEffect

only once? -------> useEffectOnce

check is it first mount? -------> useFirstMountState

Want to run effect with deep compare, shallow compare or throttle? and much more here.

Don't want to install a library? Check the code & copy. (maybe a star for the good folks there too)

Best thing is one less thing for you to maintain.

A TypeScript and CRA friendly hook, replace it with useEffect, this hook works like useEffect but won't be triggered while the first render happens.

import * as React from 'react'

export const useLazyEffect:typeof React.useEffect = (cb, dep) => {
  const initializeRef = React.useRef<boolean>(false)
  
  React.useEffect((...args) => {
    if (initializeRef.current) {
      cb(...args)
    } else {
      initializeRef.current = true
    }
  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
  }, dep)
}

Here is my implementation based on Estus Flask's answer written in Typescript. It also supports cleanup callback.

import { DependencyList, EffectCallback, useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

export function useDidUpdateEffect(
  effect: EffectCallback,
  deps?: DependencyList
) {
  // a flag to check if the component did mount (first render's passed)
  // it's unrelated to the rendering process so we don't useState here
  const didMountRef = useRef(false);

  // effect callback runs when the dependency array changes, it also runs
  // after the component mounted for the first time.
  useEffect(() => {
    // if so, mark the component as mounted and skip the first effect call
    if (!didMountRef.current) {
      didMountRef.current = true;
    } else {
      // subsequent useEffect callback invocations will execute the effect as normal
      return effect();
    }
  }, deps);
}

Live Demo

The live demo below demonstrates the different between useEffect and useDidUpdateEffect hooks

Below solution is similar to above, just a little cleaner way i prefer.

const [isMount, setIsMount] = useState(true);
useEffect(()=>{
        if(isMount){
            setIsMount(false);
            return;
        }
        
        //Do anything here for 2nd render onwards
}, [args])

I was going to comment on the currently accepted answer, but ran out of space!

Firstly, it's important to move away from thinking in terms of lifecycle events when using functional components. Think in terms of prop/state changes. I had a similar situation where I only wanted a particular useEffect function to fire when a particular prop (parentValue in my case) changes from its initial state. So, I created a ref that was based on its initial value:

const parentValueRef = useRef(parentValue);

and then included the following at the start of the useEffect fn:

if (parentValue === parentValueRef.current) return;
parentValueRef.current = parentValue;

(Basically, don't run the effect if parentValue hasn't changed. Update the ref if it has changed, ready for the next check, and continue to run the effect)

So, although other solutions suggested will solve the particular use-case you've provided, it will help in the long run to change how you think in relation to functional components.

Think of them as primarily rendering a component based on some props.

If you genuinely need some local state, then useState will provide that, but don't assume your problem will be solved by storing local state.

If you have some code that will alter your props during a render, this 'side-effect' needs to be wrapped in a useEffect, but the purpose of this is to have a clean render that isn't affected by something changing as it's rendering. The useEffect hook will be run after the render has completed and, as you've pointed out, it's run with every render - unless the second parameter is used to supply a list of props/states to identify what changed items will cause it to be run subsequent times.

Good luck on your journey to Functional Components / Hooks! Sometimes it's necessary to unlearn something to get to grips with a new way of doing things :) This is an excellent primer: https://overreacted.io/a-complete-guide-to-useeffect/