Build A React JS StopWatch – Code With Me Ep.# 002

Welcome to episode 2 of Code With Me! In this episode, we will be building a simple stopwatch using React JS. This project will help you understand the basics of working with state and handling events in React. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Set up your React environment

First, make sure you have Node.js installed on your computer. You can download it from the official website if you haven’t already. Once Node.js is installed, you can create a new React project by running the following command in your terminal:

npx create-react-app stopwatch

This will create a new folder called ‘stopwatch’ with all the necessary files and dependencies for your React project. Navigate to the ‘stopwatch’ folder and open it in your code editor.

Step 2: Create the Stopwatch component

Inside the ‘src’ folder of your React project, create a new file called ‘Stopwatch.js’. This will be our component that will handle the stopwatch functionality.

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
const Stopwatch = () => {
const [time, setTime] = useState(0);
useEffect(() => {
const interval = setInterval(() => {
setTime(prevTime => prevTime + 1);
}, 1000);
return () => clearInterval(interval);
}, []);
return (

);
}
export default Stopwatch;

In this code snippet, we are using the useState and useEffect hooks to create a simple stopwatch. The ‘time’ state will keep track of the number of seconds elapsed, and we are using a setInterval function to update this state every second. Finally, we are displaying the time in the component’s render method.

Step 3: Add the Stopwatch component to your App

Now that we have created the Stopwatch component, we need to add it to our App component. Open the ‘App.js’ file in the ‘src’ folder and import the Stopwatch component:

import Stopwatch from './Stopwatch';

Replace the existing content of the App component with the following code:

function App() {
return (

);
}

Save your changes and run the React development server by typing the following command in your terminal:

npm start

Open your browser and navigate to ‘http://localhost:3000’ to see your React stopwatch in action!

Conclusion

Congratulations on building your first React stopwatch! In this episode of Code With Me, we learned how to create a simple stopwatch using React JS and understand the basics of working with state and handling events in React. Stay tuned for more coding tutorials in the future!