Even though it's stated in many of the other answers here, the component should either:
implement shouldComponentUpdate
to render only when state or properties change
switch to extending a PureComponent, which already implements a shouldComponentUpdate
method internally for shallow comparisons.
Here's an example that uses shouldComponentUpdate
, which works only for this simple use case and demonstration purposes. When this is used, the component no longer re-renders itself on each click, and is rendered when first displayed, and after it's been clicked once.
var TimeInChild = React.createClass({_x000D_
render: function() {_x000D_
var t = new Date().getTime();_x000D_
_x000D_
return (_x000D_
<p>Time in child:{t}</p>_x000D_
);_x000D_
}_x000D_
});_x000D_
_x000D_
var Main = React.createClass({_x000D_
onTest: function() {_x000D_
this.setState({'test':'me'});_x000D_
},_x000D_
_x000D_
shouldComponentUpdate: function(nextProps, nextState) {_x000D_
if (this.state == null)_x000D_
return true;_x000D_
_x000D_
if (this.state.test == nextState.test)_x000D_
return false;_x000D_
_x000D_
return true;_x000D_
},_x000D_
_x000D_
render: function() {_x000D_
var currentTime = new Date().getTime();_x000D_
_x000D_
return (_x000D_
<div onClick={this.onTest}>_x000D_
<p>Time in main:{currentTime}</p>_x000D_
<p>Click me to update time</p>_x000D_
<TimeInChild/>_x000D_
</div>_x000D_
);_x000D_
}_x000D_
});_x000D_
_x000D_
ReactDOM.render(<Main/>, document.body);
_x000D_
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.0.0/react.min.js"></script>_x000D_
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.0.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
_x000D_