If you’re familiar with Redux, you know that it requires you to write a lot of boilerplate code to handle immutable updates. Luckily, Redux Toolkit makes it easier for us to manage immutable updates by providing a set of utilities and abstractions.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to create immutable updates using Redux Toolkit and how it can simplify our Redux code.

The Problem with Immutable Updates

One of the key principles of Redux is that we should never mutate the state directly. Instead, we need to create new copies of the state whenever we need to make changes. However, this can lead to complex and error-prone code, especially when dealing with deeply nested state.

Here’s an example of how we would typically handle immutable updates in Redux:

const initialState = {
  user: {
    name: 'John',
    age: 30
  }
};

function reducer(state = initialState, action) {
  switch (action.type) {
    case 'UPDATE_USER':
      return {
        ...state,
        user: {
          ...state.user,
          age: action.payload.age
        }
      };

    default:
      return state;
  }
}

In this example, we have to manually spread the state object and create new copies of nested properties whenever we need to update them. This can quickly become cumbersome as our state grows in complexity.

Immutable Updates with Redux Toolkit

Redux Toolkit provides a simpler and more concise way to handle immutable updates using the createSlice and createReducer functions.

To illustrate this, let’s see how we can rewrite the above example using Redux Toolkit:

import { createSlice } from '@reduxjs/toolkit';

const initialState = {
  user: {
    name: 'John',
    age: 30
  }
};

const userSlice = createSlice({
  name: 'user',
  initialState,
  reducers: {
    updateUser(state, action) {
      state.user.age = action.payload.age;
    }
  }
});

export const { updateUser } = userSlice.actions;
export default userSlice.reducer;

With Redux Toolkit, we create a slice using the createSlice function. Inside the reducers object, we define our action and the corresponding function to update the state.

Notice how we can directly modify the state within our updateUser function without having to create new copies of the state. Redux Toolkit takes care of immutability behind the scenes.

Conclusion

Redux Toolkit simplifies the process of handling immutable updates, making our Redux code more readable and reducing the risk of errors. By using utilities like createSlice and createReducer, we can avoid the need for manual state copying and focus on writing the logic to update our state.

So if you’re tired of writing boilerplate code for immutable updates in Redux, give Redux Toolkit a try. Your code will be cleaner, more maintainable, and easier to reason about.

#redux #react