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reactjstypescriptreact-contextuse-context

useContext Returning Undefined Even Though It Shouldn't Be Undefined


I have created the following context in React:

import { useBoolean } from "@chakra-ui/react"
import { createContext, FC } from "react"

type useBooleanReturn = ReturnType<typeof useBoolean>

export const MobileContext = createContext<
  [show: useBooleanReturn[0], setShow: useBooleanReturn[1]] | undefined
>(undefined)

// --- PROVIDER
const MobileProvider: FC = ({ children }) => {
  const [show, setShow] = useBoolean()

  return (
    <MobileContext.Provider value={[show, setShow]}>
      {children}
    </MobileContext.Provider>
  )
}

export default MobileProvider

So far so good, but when I try and use this context it turns out that what is being passed down is undefined. That is, in the following code value is undefined:

const value = React.useContext(MobileContext)

I don't know why that is, though, since I use the useBoolean hook when setting up the context -- i.e., this line: const [show, setShow] = useBoolean(). I then pass on show and setShow to my context with this line: value={[show, setShow]}. As such, shouldn't value be defined with an array with two values (namely show and setShow)?

Any idea why that is NOT happening and what can I do to fix it?

Thanks.

UPDATE Here is the full example of when I call useContext:

import * as React from "react"
import MobileProvider, { MobileContext } from "./context.mobile"

const Mobile = () => {
  const value = React.useContext(MobileContext)

  console.log("value:", value)
  ...

The above is what I did for testing purposes. Here is what I the code is actually supposed to look like:

import * as React from "react"
import Base from "./base"

import Header from "./Header"
import Menu from "./Menu"
import Footer from "./Footer"


import MobileProvider, { MobileContext } from "./context.mobile"

const Mobile = () => {
  const [show, setShow] = React.useContext(MobileContext)

  return (
    <MobileProvider>
      <Base onClick={setShow.toggle} ref={ref} show={show}>
        <Header onClick={setShow.toggle} />
        <Menu />
        <Footer />
      </Base>
    </MobileProvider>
  )
}

export default Mobile

Solution

  • You suppose to call useContext on PROVIDER'S CONSUMERS.

    In other words, the component which calls the useContext (Mobile) must be a child of MobileProvider.

    In your case, its not a consumer, thats not how the API defined, therefore you will get the default value (undefined) since its called out of context.

    const Mobile = () => {
      // NOT A CONSUMER
      const [show, setShow] = React.useContext(MobileContext)
    
      return (
        <MobileProvider>
          ...
        </MobileProvider>
      )
    }
    

    Move the component to MobileProvider tree

    <MobileProvider>
      <Mobile/>
    </MobileProvider>
    
    const Mobile = () => {
      // NOW A CONSUMER
      const [show, setShow] = React.useContext(MobileContext)
    
      return (
        <Base onClick={setShow.toggle} ref={ref} show={show}>
            ...
        </Base>
      )
    }