React: Updating state when state is an array of objects

Your update function would look like this

updateItem(id, itemAttributes) {
  var index = this.state.items.findIndex(x=> x.id === id);
  if (index === -1)
    // handle error
  else
    this.setState({
      items: [
         ...this.state.items.slice(0,index),
         Object.assign({}, this.state.items[index], itemAttributes),
         ...this.state.items.slice(index+1)
      ]
    });
}

And you use it like this

this.updateItem(2, {someattr: 'a new value'});

Gross right?

---

You're going to have a big headache in general if you continue to build a complex application in this manner. I would recommend you look into redux or some other Flux implementation that is better suited for solving these problems.

Redux uses a concept of state reducers which each work on a specific slice of the state of your application. That way you don't have to manually dig through your entire state each time you want to affect a deep change.

The creator of Redux, Dan Abramov, has made two video courses available online for free. Dan is an excellent teacher and I felt comfortable with the Redux pattern after spending just one afternoon with it.

• https://egghead.io/courses/getting-started-with-redux
• https://egghead.io/courses/building-react-applications-with-idiomatic-redux

If you wish to use a function, this is how I would do it...

const[array,setArray]= useState([
    {id: 1, value: "aws", othervalue: "was"},
    {id: 2, value: "goo", othervalue: "nano"},
    {id: 3, value: "micro", othervalue: "marcro"},
])

const updateItem =(id, whichvalue, newvalue)=> {
    let index = array.findIndex(x=> x.id === id); 
/*this line is only neccessay if your element's id 
isn't its postion/index in the array or related to it.
In the case that it is, use the id as the index, or run the function
(binary/hash) that relates the id to that position/index to find the index.
*/
    if (index !== -1){
        let temporaryarray = array.slice();
        temporaryarray[index][whichvalue] = newvalue;
        setArray(temporaryarray);
    }
    else {
        console.log('no match');
    }
}
    /* --longer version--
    var index = array.findIndex(x=> x.id === id);
    let g = array[index]
    g[whichvalue] = newvalue
    if (index === -1){
        console.log('no match')
    }
    else {
        setArray(
            [
            ...array.slice(0,index),
            g,
            ...array.slice(index+1)
            ]
        );
    }
    */
    
//how to use the function    
onPress={()=>updateItem(2,'value','John Lemon')}
onPress={()=>updateItem(1,'othervalue','Stringo Stra')}

The first input of the function is the id of the item.

The second input of the function is the attribute that you wish to change.

The third input of the function is the new value for that attribute.