What is Virtual DOM in React?

I'll try to explain what Virtual DOM is in simple words so that it still makes sense even if you are not in the tech business.

Imagine a web page as some enormous map containing a mashup of things — buttons, images, text fields, etc. Anything on the page changes (you click a button or enter text in a search box), and the browser must redisplay the whole map. That's a lot of work, and it can slow everything down.

React solves this problem with something known as Virtual DOM. But what is it

? Well, instead of making changes on the actual webpage (which is known as real DOM right away), React makes changes in the Virtual DOM. It's like a light, in-memory copy of your webpage that React can update really fast.

Here is how to imagine it: Imagine you have to throw your living room around after every new inspiration. Moving the furniture every time about each new idea in your head is so tiring. But moving the furniture when you actually know where to move it makes much sense, right? That is what the Virtual DOM is doing. It first calculates the changes that need to be made in virtual space; once it is convinced that this needs to be done, then only the necessary parts of the real webpage are updated.

So, first React touches the Virtual DOM: With every click inside your React app-for example, on that button-React doesn't update the actual webpage. Instead, it reaches down to the Virtual DOM. Because it's all memory-based, it's really much faster.

Then React scans for changes: After creating a new Virtual DOM, React runs against the new one and compares it to the old one. It checks exactly what has changed-that's called "diffing."

Finally, React updates the real DOM: Once it has detected what's different, React goes ahead to update only those specific parts of the real webpage that need it. This way, it doesn't reload or re-render the whole page, which makes things quite speedy.

It is faster: React minimizes heavy work the browser needs to do through using the Virtual DOM. It doesn't keep messing with the real DOM; it updates only the parts that have actually changed.

It is more efficient: React doesn't redraw everything on a page whenever something small changes. your app/ website runs faster and the user feels like he or she is interacting with it and then it responds.

Better user experience: Since updates through React happen in the Virtual DOM first, there are fewer slowdowns and delays by which a user can interact with the application.

This is basically how Virtual DOM ensures your app runs fast and efficiently. It forces the browser to work less so that users enjoy the app with a smoother, quicker experience.

Summary In a nutshell, list virtualization is a very good extension for React-based applications that work with large datasets. Actually, showing only the items that are currently visible and handling off-screen items properly does indeed help improve performance, resulting in faster load time and smoother scrolling.

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