So is it possible to learn React without JavaScript? It's a reasonable question. It may seem like you are competing with yourself to become an expert programmer when you first begin learning how to code.

So is JavaScript Necessary To learn React? Technically speaking, yes. Without a solid grounding in JavaScript, you can begin learning React. However, it will significantly slow you down and make learning much more difficult.

In this article, I am going to explain why you should learn JavaScript before React. So without further ado, let’s react. 😀

The vast majority of React is actually JavaScript

The primary reason to understand JavaScript before React is that you'll find yourself writing a lot more vanilla JavaScript as you start developing more complicated applications.

Trust me, learning JavaScript is challenging enough on its own; adding React as a second aspect to comprehend is a horrible idea. It's similar to trying to simultaneously learn two programming languages. Being an expert in JavaScript will make you a much better React developer. You will regularly use your prior JavaScript expertise to figure out how to accomplish tasks when developing apps.

React Compels You To Do Things A Certain Way

React is a library that aids in project structure, thus you must follow certain procedures. When using React, this can feel rather limiting. Ultimately, you will realise that these limitations are actually to your advantage if you have attempted to construct complicated projects without React.

The use of useEffects or the requirement to use useState in ReactHooks may feel cumbersome and restrict your ability to write code. If you've written vanilla JavaScript without React, you'll see how it keeps your code organised and consistent across the project.

These standardised ways of operating appear more like a burden than a gain if you don't know how to construct things with JavaScript.

When you learn JavaScript, you are actually learning a lot about React. React is really just a library to make building web apps easier to do. If you understand a lot of JavaScript, you will understand React.

You won’t know what’s React and what’s JavaScript

Finally, the inability to distinguish between code that is a component of React and pure JavaScript makes learning React so challenging.

Learning JavaScript and React at the same time will just make things more confusing and make it more difficult to tell which is which.

When working with React projects, JavaScript and React library components are intimately related. You won't be able to distinguish between the React library and built-in JavaScript functions if you don't have a firm grasp of JavaScript.

Additionally, you can mistake the writing style of React for that of JavaScript. making you believe the two are interchangeable. Clearly, this is not the case.

Wrapping up

So that's about it. Why understanding JavaScript is necessary before learning React. Although it's not required, becoming an expert in JavaScript will eventually make understanding React simple.

You'll be able to tell more clearly which elements of your app are React and which are plain JavaScript, comprehend how React works, and learn the material much more quickly.

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