react-use-advanced-javascript-in-react-render-method.md

React: Use Advanced JavaScript in React Render Method

In previous challenges, you learned how to inject JavaScript code into JSX code using curly braces, { }, for tasks like accessing props, passing props, accessing state, inserting comments into your code, and most recently, styling your components. These are all common use cases to put JavaScript in JSX, but they aren't the only way that you can utilize JavaScript code in your React components.

You can also write JavaScript directly in your render methods, before the return statement, without inserting it inside of curly braces. This is because it is not yet within the JSX code. When you want to use a variable later in the JSX code inside the return statement, you place the variable name inside curly braces.

In the code provided, the render method has an array that contains 20 phrases to represent the answers found in the classic 1980's Magic Eight Ball toy. The button click event is bound to the ask method, so each time the button is clicked a random number will be generated and stored as the randomIndex in state. On line 52, delete the string "change me!" and reassign the answer const so your code randomly accesses a different index of the possibleAnswers array each time the component updates. Finally, insert the answer const inside the p tags.

const inputStyle = {
  width: 235,
  margin: 5
}

class MagicEightBall extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      userInput: '',
      randomIndex: ''
    }
    this.ask = this.ask.bind(this);
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
  }
  ask() {
    if (this.state.userInput) {
      this.setState({
        randomIndex: Math.floor(Math.random() * 20),
        userInput: ''
      });
    }
  }
  handleChange(event) {
    this.setState({
      userInput: event.target.value
    });
  }
  render() {
    const possibleAnswers = [
      'It is certain',
      'It is decidedly so',
      'Without a doubt', 
      'Yes, definitely',
      'You may rely on it',
      'As I see it, yes',
      'Outlook good',
      'Yes',
      'Signs point to yes',
      'Reply hazy try again',
      'Ask again later',
      'Better not tell you now',
      'Cannot predict now',
      'Concentrate and ask again',
      'Don\'t count on it', 
      'My reply is no',
      'My sources say no',
      'Most likely',
      'Outlook not so good',
      'Very doubtful'
    ];
    const answer = possibleAnswers[this.state.randomIndex]; // << change code here
    return (
      <div>
        <input
          type="text"
          value={this.state.userInput}
          onChange={this.handleChange}
          style={inputStyle} /><br />
        <button onClick={this.ask}>
          Ask the Magic Eight Ball!
        </button><br />
        <h3>Answer:</h3>
        <p>
          { /* change code below this line */ }
          {answer}
          { /* change code above this line */ }
        </p>
      </div>
    );
  }
};