Code

export default function Header(){
  let showMe = false;
  function toggle(){
    showMe = !showMe;
  }
  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={toggle}>Toggle Subjects</button>
      {/*The bottom code should toggle on and off when the button is pressed*/}
      <div style={{
        display: showMe?"block":"none"
      }}>
        This should toggle my display
      </div>
    </>
  );
}

Expectation

The div tag should toggle in visibility (For example, if I clicked on the button once, the div tag should show up, and if I clicked on it again it would be hidden and so on).

Reality

It appears the variable showMe changes however the div tag does not follow with the updates and remains hidden.

NOTE: I am using next.js if that changes anything.

Code

export default function Header(){
  let showMe = false;
  function toggle(){
    showMe = !showMe;
  }
  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={toggle}>Toggle Subjects</button>
      {/*The bottom code should toggle on and off when the button is pressed*/}
      <div style={{
        display: showMe?"block":"none"
      }}>
        This should toggle my display
      </div>
    </>
  );
}

Expectation

The div tag should toggle in visibility (For example, if I clicked on the button once, the div tag should show up, and if I clicked on it again it would be hidden and so on).

Reality

It appears the variable showMe changes however the div tag does not follow with the updates and remains hidden.

NOTE: I am using next.js if that changes anything.

• javascript
• reactjs
• next.js

• You need to you useState for that (reactjs.org/docs/hooks-state.html) – user3210641 Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 21:14

1 Answer 1

showMe needs to be a state variable so that React knows to rerender the component when showMe changes. I'd read this: https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-state.html

The code below should work (note how showMe is replaced with a call to useState).

export default function Header(){
  const [showMe, setShowMe] = useState(false);
  function toggle(){
    setShowMe(!showMe);
  }
  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={toggle}>Toggle Subjects</button>
      {/*The bottom code should toggle on and off when the button is pressed*/}
      <div style={{
        display: showMe?"block":"none"
      }}>
        This should toggle my display
      </div>
    </>
  );
}

The bracket notation const [showMe, setShowMe] = useState(false); is Array Destructuring: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Destructuring_assignment

useState returns an array of length 2. Using array destructuring, we set the first element of the returned array to showMe and the second element of the returned array to setShowMe.