ReactJs - can't access setState inside axios call

Question

I'm having troubles setting state to the variable isCorrectAnswer inside an axios call. I'm getting the error Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'setState') in the console log. What am I doing wrong? Initial state of isCorrectAnswer variable is constructor(props) {super(props)this.state = { isCorrectAnswer: false }}
and the axios call is

axios.post(
      "API/path/to/ressource",
      postData,
      {
        headers: {
          "X-Access-Token":
            "token",
        },
      }
    )
      .then(function (res) {
        this.setState({
          isCorrectAnswer: res.data.correct //Here im trying to change the state
        }, () => console.log(this.state.isCorrectAnswer)) //and logging into console
      })
      .catch(function (error) {
        console.log(error);
      });

If you're having troubles with `this`, the answer is often that you ought to be using arrow functions instead of the function keyword. For more info, see [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/20279485/15299500). — samuei, Apr 27 '22 at 19:27

Som Shekhar Mukherjee · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-27T20:08:22.010

When you call a function (non arrow function), this is always an implicit parameter.

Normal functions

By normal functions I mean functions that are not methods.

In strict mode value of this is always undefined.

And in non strict mode value of this is always the global object (window in browsers)

function foo() {
  "use strict";
  return this;
}

function bar() {
  return this;
}

console.log(foo() === undefined); // true
console.log(bar() === window); // true

Methods

this refers to the object on which the method has been invoked.

function foo() {
  "use strict";
  return this;
}

const obj = { foo };

console.log(obj.foo() === obj); // true

And in your case the callback passed to then is a normal function (not a method), so it's this is set undefined, hence you are getting an error.

Update to an arrow function and it would solve the issue because arrow functions don't have their own this, in arrow functions this is decided on the basis of lexical scope. Checkout the example below:

const getRandomNums = (delay) =>
  new Promise((res) => setTimeout(() => res([5, 2, 3]), delay));

class App extends React.Component {
  constructor() {
    super();
    this.state = { nums: [] };
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    getRandomNums(1500).then((nums) => {
      this.setState({ nums });
    });
  }

  render() {
    return <div>{JSON.stringify(this.state.nums, null, 2)}</div>;
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById("root"));

<script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react@17/umd/react.development.js"></script>
<script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@17/umd/react-dom.development.js"></script>
<div id="root"></div>

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 27 '22 at 20:05

You can also do Use arrow function instead of function

axios.post(
  "API/path/to/ressource",
  postData,
  {
    headers: {
      "X-Access-Token":
        "token",
    },
  }
)
  .then((res) => {
    this.setState({
      isCorrectAnswer: res.data.correct //Here im trying to change the state
    }, () => console.log(this.state.isCorrectAnswer)) //and logging into console
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error);
  });

ReactJs - can't access setState inside axios call

2 Answers2