abort-controller.js

function useAbortController() {
  const abortControllerRef = React.useRef()
  const getAbortController = React.useCallback(() => {
    if (!abortControllerRef.current) {
      abortControllerRef.current = new AbortController()
    }
    return abortControllerRef.current
  }, [])

  React.useEffect(() => {
    return () => getAbortController().abort()
  }, [getAbortController])

  const getSignal = React.useCallback(() => getAbortController().signal, [
    getAbortController,
  ])

  return getSignal
}

Amazing 😍

The first useCallback is unnecessary

It's not

Sorry, should have been a bit more verbose than that.
Since it doesn't have any dependencies, the returned function will never actually change by reference.
This would mean that neither the useEffect's, nor the other useCallback's dependency array really ever changes, the dependency array might as well be [], in which case the first useCallback is unnecessary, because it's reference is never again relevant to anything. You actually have a good post about When to useMemo and useCallback, with a similar scenario as one of the points.

I'm curious what you think about the following versions, and if you see any caveats in just going with the first one:

function useAbortController() {
  const abortControllerRef = React.useRef(new AbortController())

  React.useEffect(() => () => abortControllerRef.current.abort(), [])

  return abortControllerRef.current.signal
}

function useAbortController() {
  const abortControllerRef = React.useRef<AbortController>()
  const getAbortController = () => {
    return (abortControllerRef.current = abortControllerRef.current || new AbortController())
  }

  React.useEffect(() => {
    return () => getAbortController().abort()
  }, [])

  const getSignal = React.useCallback(() => getAbortController().signal, [])

  return getSignal
}

To do that, you would have to ignore the react-hooks/exhaustive-deps eslint rule when there's really not issue doing so. In this case we are adding complexity by including those hooks, but we're getting the benefit of ensuring that if anyone changes this code they don't miss dependencies.

The issue with your first example is that you'd create a new AbortController in every render.

The way my code works, you only create one when you need one.

Thank you for engaging with me on this random piece of discussion.

The original code still creates an AbortController, even if it's never "used", for the useEffect cleanup.

Removing the callback, and the unintended instantiation, this seems slightly less readable but functionally more fitting to presumed intention, with no loose ends.

function useAbortController() {
  const abortControllerRef = React.useRef<AbortController>()

  React.useEffect(() => {
    return () => abortControllerRef.current?.abort()
  }, [])

  const getSignal = React.useCallback(() => {
    if (!abortControllerRef.current) {
      abortControllerRef.current = new AbortController()
    }
    return abortControllerRef.current.signal
  }, [])

  return getSignal
}

Solid 👍👍

Hello folks, could someone kindly show me how this works in practise?

I'm currently doing this with a ref, this looks more elegant though

Whoever found above gist first before Kent's own tweet, use the above hook like below. Directly copied from that tweet.

const getSignal = useAbortController()

// in an effect
fetch('/thing', {signal: getSignal()})

I use it this way, but it raises error: Failed to execute 'fetch' on 'Window': The user aborted a request.

  const getSignal = useAbortController();
  const [data, setData] = useState();

  const doFetch = async () => {
    const signal = getSignal();
    const response = await fetch("https://codesandbox.io", { signal });
    const result = await response.body;

    setData(result);
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    doFetch()
  }, []);

How to solve?

How do you manually call abort() from this?

Here is my manually controlled abortController I use to allow users to cancel an upload in React Native

function useAbortController() {
  const abortControllerRef = useRef();
  const getAbortController = useCallback(() => {
    console.log('getAbortController', abortControllerRef.current);
    if (!abortControllerRef.current) {
      abortControllerRef.current = new AbortController();
    }
    return abortControllerRef.current;
  }, []);

  const abortSignal = useCallback(() => {
    if (abortControllerRef.current) {
      abortControllerRef.current.abort();
 
      abortControllerRef.current = null;      // Resets it for next time
    }
  }, []);

  const getSignal = useCallback(
    () => getAbortController().signal,
    [getAbortController]
  );

  return { getSignal, abortSignal };
}

Inspired by @charlestbell

• Leave control to the user of the hook to abort() anytime they want, not just on unmount.
• Returns a (memoized) object that resembles the AbortController API: { abort, signal } instead of the getSignal function.
• Strict null checks on abortCtrlRef.current instead of falsey for perf (just because).

function useAbortController() {

  const abortCtrlRef = useRef( null );

  const getAbortController = useCallback(
    () => {
      if ( abortCtrlRef.current === null ) abortCtrlRef.current = new AbortController();
      return abortCtrlRef.current;
    },
    []
  );

  const abort = useCallback(
    () => {
      if ( abortCtrlRef.current !== null ) {
        abortCtrlRef.current.abort();
        abortCtrlRef.current = null;
      }
    },
    []
  );

  return useMemo(
    () => ({
      get signal() { return getAbortController().signal; },
      abort,
    }),
    [ getAbortController, abort ]
  );

}

Usage:

function MyComponent( props ) {

  // { abort, signal } just like a real AbortController
  const { abort, signal } = useAbortController();

  // Some useEffect or other thing you need to be able to abort
  useEffect(() => fetch( url, { signal } ), [ signal ]);

  // The user of the hook can abort whenever they please.
  useEffect(() => () => abort(), [ abort ]);

}

Ia had same implementation in typescript. Only difference if that I'm aborting with reason. I mostly use this in cases when I need to stop a flow on re-render.

import React from "react"

export function useAbortController() {
  const abortControllerRef = React.useRef<AbortController | undefined>()

  const getAbortController = React.useCallback(() => {
    abortControllerRef.current =
      abortControllerRef.current && !abortControllerRef.current.signal.aborted
        ? abortControllerRef.current
        : new AbortController()
    return abortControllerRef.current
  }, [])

  const getSignal = React.useCallback(() => {
    return getAbortController().signal
  }, [getAbortController])

  React.useEffect(() => {
    return () => {
      getAbortController().abort("Re-render")
    }
  }, [getAbortController])

  return getSignal
}