Understanding unique keys for array children in React.js

I’m building a React component that accepts a JSON data source and creates a sortable table.
Each of the dynamic data rows has a unique key assigned to it but I’m still getting an error of:

Each child in an array should have a unique “key” prop.
Check the render method of TableComponent.

My TableComponent render method returns:

<table>
  <thead key="thead">
    <TableHeader columns={columnNames}/>
  </thead>
  <tbody key="tbody">
    { rows }
  </tbody>
</table>

The TableHeader component is a single row and also has a unique key assigned to it.

Each row in rows is built from a component with a unique key:

<TableRowItem key={item.id} data={item} columns={columnNames}/>

And the TableRowItem looks like this:

var TableRowItem = React.createClass({
  render: function() {

    var td = function() {
        return this.props.columns.map(function(c) {
          return <td key={this.props.data[c]}>{this.props.data[c]}</td>;
        }, this);
      }.bind(this);

    return (
      <tr>{ td(this.props.item) }</tr>
    )
  }
});

What is causing the unique key prop error?

Answer

You should add a key to each child as well as each element inside children.

This way React can handle the minimal DOM change.

In your code, each <TableRowItem key={item.id} data={item} columns={columnNames}/> is trying to render some children inside them without a key.

Check this example.

Try removing the key={i} from the <b></b> element inside the div’s (and check the console).

In the sample, if we don’t give a key to the <b> element and we want to update only the object.city, React needs to re-render the whole row vs just the element.

Here is the code:

const data = [
  { name: "Nuri", age: 28, city: "HO" },
  { name: "Talib", age: 82, city: "HN" },
  { name: "Jenny", age: 41, city: "IT" },
];

const ExampleComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    const infoData = this.props.info;
    return (
      <div>
        {infoData.map((object, i) => {
          return (
            <div className={"row"} key={i}>
              {[
                object.name,
                // remove the key
                <b className="fosfo" key={i}>
                  {" "}
                  {object.city}{" "}
                </b>,
                object.age,
              ]}
            </div>
          );
        })}
      </div>
    );
  },
});

React.render(<ExampleComponent info={data} />, document.body);

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The answer posted by @Chris at the bottom goes into much more detail than this answer.

React documentation on the importance of keys in reconciliation: Keys