How to change props to state in React Hooks?

It is difficult to achieve a state which depends on prop value and at the same avoid unnecessary re-renders.

Here is my attempt in creating such a hook:

/**
 * Replacement for useState which depends on prop value and avoids unnecessary re-renders.
 */
export function useStateBasedOnProps(propValue) {
    const [, update] = useState(false);

    const [state, setState] = useMemo(() => {
        const state = {};
        return [
            state,
            (value) => {
                if (value instanceof Function) {
                    state.value = value(state.value);
                } else {
                    state.value = value;
                }
                update((tick) => !tick);
            }
        ];
    }, [update]);

    if (state.prevPropValue !== propValue) {
        state.prevPropValue = propValue;
        state.value = propValue;
    }

    return [state.value, setState];
}

Here is a usage example:

function IncButton({initialValue}) {
    const [value, setValue] = useStateBasedOnProps(initialValue);
    const increment = useCallback(() => setValue((prev) => prev + 1), [setValue]);
    return <button onClick={increment}>Click to increment: {value}</button>;
}

Full example: https://gist.github.com/mdevils/b861610780300784292194f65886517a

You can pass your initial state as first argument to useState like this:

const GenerateDescHook = ({ description: initialDesc }) => {
  const [description, setDescription] = useState(initialDesc)

  ...

The initial value of your state is the one passed into useState :

const GenerateDescHook = ({ description: initialDesc }) => {
  const [description, setDescription] = useState(initialDesc)

As the documentation states :

function Example() {
  // Declare a new state variable, which we'll call "count"
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>You clicked {count} times</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
        Click me
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

Is the equivalent of :

class Example extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      count: 0
    };
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <p>You clicked {this.state.count} times</p>
        <button onClick={() => this.setState({ count: this.state.count + 1 })}>
          Click me
        </button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

The problem in your code is with {}. UseEffect hook expects and array, not an object. Use [initialDesc] instead.

This is how you reset component state when props change

const GenerateDescHook = ({ description: initialDesc }) => {
  const [description, setDescription] = useState(null)

  useEffect(() => {
    setDescription(initialDesc)
  }, [initialDesc]);
}

This is how you initialize component state to prop value on first render only

const GenerateDescHook = ({ description: initialDesc }) => {
  const [description, setDescription] = useState(initialDesc);
}