How to add type to useState while using TypeScript with React

Have you started using TypeScript with React recently and are confused about how to declare types for your state in the useState hook? In this article, we will see the type declarations for boolean, string, number, array, and object.

Type definition for boolean values

If you need to declare a state to store a boolean value, then you can declare it as shown below:

1const [autoPlay, setAutoPlay] = useState<boolean>(false)

The type needs to be passed after the useState, inside angular brackets.

You can use it in your application as follows:

1import React, { useState } from "react"
2
3function App() {
4  const [autoPlay, setAutoPlay] = useState<boolean>(false)
5  return (
6    <div className="App">
7      <button onClick={() => setAutoPlay(existingValue => !existingValue)}>
8        Turn autoplay {autoPlay ? "on" : "off"}
9      </button>
10    </div>
11  )
12}
13
14export default App

It is not mandatory to specify the type as TypeScript can infer the type from the type of the initial value.

If we try to set a different type value, say a string using setAutoPlay("true") then we will get the following error:

1Argument of type '""' is not assignable to parameter of type 'SetStateAction<boolean>'.ts(2345)

Type definition for setState function

If you need to pass the setState function as a prop to a child component, then you can specify the type of the useState function as follows:

1import React from "react"
2
3const ChildComp = ({
4  setAutoPlay,
5}: {
6  setAutoPlay: React.Dispatch<React.SetStateAction<boolean>>
7}) => {
8  return <div>ChildComp</div>
9}
10
11export default ChildComp

Types for other data types

We can declare the types for other data types as shown below:

1import React, { useState } from "react"
2
3interface IPerson {
4  name: string
5  age: number
6  hobbies: string[]
7}
8
9function App() {
10  // boolean
11  const [autoPlay, setAutoPlay] = useState<boolean>(false)
12  // string
13  const [name, setName] = useState<string>("Abhishek")
14  // number
15  const [age, setAge] = useState<number>(28)
16  // array of string
17  const [hobbies, setHobbies] = useState<string[]>([
18    "coding",
19    "trading",
20    "reading",
21  ])
22  // object
23  const [person, setPerson] = useState<IPerson>({
24    name: "Abhishek",
25    age: 28,
26    hobbies: ["coding", "trading", "reading"],
27  })
28  return <div className="App"></div>
29}
30
31export default App

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How to add type to useState while using TypeScript with React

Table of Contents

Type definition for boolean values

Type definition for setState function

Types for other data types

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