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Context API

1 min readMay 12, 2025

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The Context API in React is a built-in feature that allows to share state or values across component tree without having to pass props manually at every level.

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It’s often used for:

  • User authentication data (e.g: logged-in user info)
  • Theme (dark/light)
  • Language settings
  • Global form or UI state

It follows three main steps

  1. Create the Context

import React, { createContext } from ‘react’;

export const UserContext = createContext();

2. Provide the Context

export const UserProvider = ({ children }) => {
const [user, setUser] = React.useState(null);

return (
<UserContext.Provider value={{ user, setUser }}>
{children}
</UserContext.Provider>
);
};

Then wrap this in app.js or main.js

import { UserProvider } from ‘./UserContext’;

function App() {
return (
<UserProvider>
<HomePage/>
</UserProvider>
);
}

3. Use the Context

import { useContext } from ‘react’;
import { UserContext } from ‘./UserContext’;

const HomePage = () => {
const { user } = useContext(UserContext);

return <div>Welcome, {user?.name}</div>;
};

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