React - TypeError: Cannot read property 'props' of undefined

Question

I'm trying to create a click event be able to delete an item on my list, but when I click it I get "TypeError: Cannot read property 'props' of undefined".

I'm trying to stick to ES6 as much as possible, and I'm pretty sure its something to do binding 'this' somewhere, but I've tried many places and been unsuccessful.

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import './App.css';

class App extends Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div className="App">
                <StreetFighter />
            </div>
        );
    }
}

class StreetFighter extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = {
            characters: [
                'Chun-Li',
                'Guile',
                'Ryu',
                'Ken',
                'E.Honda',
                'Dhalsim',
            ],
        };
    }
    render() {
        let characters = this.state.characters;
        characters = characters.map((char, index) => {
            return (
                <Character char={char} key={index} onDelete={this.onDelete} />
            );
        });
        return (
            <div>
                <p>Street Fighter Characters</p>
                <ul>{characters}</ul>
            </div>
        );
    }
    onDelete(chosenCharacter) {
        let updatedCharactersList = this.state.characters.filter(
            (char, index) => {
                return chosenCharacter !== char;
            }
        );

        this.setState({
            characters: updatedCharactersList,
        });
    }
}

class Character extends Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <li>
                <div className="character">
                    <span className="character-name">{this.props.char}</span>
                    <span
                        className="character-delete"
                        onClick={this.handleDelete}
                        > x </span>
                </div>
            </li>
        )
    };

    handleDelete() {
        this.props.onDelete(this.props.char);
    }
}


export default App;

Answer 1

You rewrite the context of the class method when you pass it to props like this because of JS OOP system. So to make it work there are several approaches:

1) This is not so good because bind always returns new function and your component will re-render even if there are no updates in props

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import './App.css';

class App extends Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div className="App">
                <StreetFighter />
            </div>
        );
    }
}

class StreetFighter extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = {
            characters: [
                'Chun-Li',
                'Guile',
                'Ryu',
                'Ken',
                'E.Honda',
                'Dhalsim',
            ],
        };
    }
    render() {
        let characters = this.state.characters;
        characters = characters.map((char, index) => {
            return (
                <Character char={char} key={index} onDelete={this.onDelete.bind(this)} />
            );
        });
        return (
            <div>
                <p>Street Fighter Characters</p>
                <ul>{characters}</ul>
            </div>
        );
    }
    onDelete(chosenCharacter) {
        let updatedCharactersList = this.state.characters.filter(
            (char, index) => {
                return chosenCharacter !== char;
            }
        );

        this.setState({
            characters: updatedCharactersList,
        });
    }
}

class Character extends Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <li>
                <div className="character">
                    <span className="character-name">{this.props.char}</span>
                    <span
                        className="character-delete"
                        onClick={this.handleDelete.bind(this)}
                        > x </span>
                </div>
            </li>
        )
    };

    handleDelete() {
        this.props.onDelete(this.props.char);
    }
}


export default App;

2) In my code I use arrow functions as class properties for such cases (it's one of the most common solutions, I think)

class Character extends Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <li>
                <div className="character">
                    <span className="character-name">{this.props.char}</span>
                    <span
                        className="character-delete"
                        onClick={this.handleDelete}
                        > x </span>
                </div>
            </li>
        )
    };

    handleDelete = () => {
        this.props.onDelete(this.props.char);
    }
}