How to use Error Boundaries in React

What are Error Boundaries?

Error boundaries are React components that catch JavaScript errors anywhere in their child component tree. You typically use them to display a fallback UI (e.g., with a sorry message) or to log errors to a error reporting service like Sentry.

Error boundaries help you gracefully handle errors rather than show users a blank white screen. You can think of them like JavaScript’s catch blocks but for React components.

Errors that error boundaries DO NOT catch

• Event handlers (learn more)
• Asynchronous code (e.g. setTimeout or setInterval)
• Server side rendering
• Errors thrown in the error boundary itself (rather than its children)

Define an error boundary

Create a class component that responds to either of the lifecycle methods:

• static getDerivedStateFromError() – to display a fallback UI.
• componentDidCatch() – for anything else such as logging errors somewhere.

Here’s an example:

import React, { ErrorInfo } from 'react'

interface Props {
  children: React.ReactNode
}

type State = { hasError: boolean; error: Error | null }

class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component<Props, State> {
  constructor(props: Props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = { hasError: false, error: null }
  }

  static getDerivedStateFromError(error: Error) {
    return { hasError: true, error }
  }

  componentDidCatch(error: Error, errorInfo: ErrorInfo) {
    console.log({ error, errorInfo })
  }

  render() {
    const { hasError, error } = this.state
    console.log({ hasError, error })

    if (hasError) {
      return <>Some error occurred</> // Show whatever you need to
    }

    return this.props.children
  }
}

export default ErrorBoundary

You can then use it like this:

<ErrorBoundary>
  <MyPage />
</ErrorBoundary>

An example <ErrorScreen /> implementation might look like:

import React from 'react'
import Alert from 'react-bootstrap/Alert'
import { isDevelopment } from '../../lib/utils'
import MainLayout from '../layouts/MainLayout'
import { Container } from '../layout'

const FALLBACK_ERROR_MESSAGE = 'Something went wrong.'

type Props = { error?: Error }

const ErrorScreen: React.FC<Props> = ({
  error = new Error(FALLBACK_ERROR_MESSAGE),
}) => (
  <MainLayout>
    <Container>
      <Alert variant="danger" className="mt-4">
        {isDevelopment() ? error.stack : FALLBACK_ERROR_MESSAGE}
      </Alert>
    </Container>
  </MainLayout>
)

export default ErrorScreen

Now, whenever an error occurs inside the <MyPage> tree, end users see a generic message (e.g., Something went wrong) whilst developers can see the full error stack.

Sources

• Error Boundaries – React docs