Business
Jobs
  • About Us
  • Solutions
    • Job Postings
      Post your job and receive qualified candidates in 48h.
    • Candidate Assessments
      500+ technical and psychological tests, plus anti-fraud.
    • Headhunting
      Tailor-made executive search from start to finish.
    • Payroll + EOR
      Payroll dispersal and EOR across 15+ LATAM countries.
  • Pricing
  • Jobs

0

237
Views
reactjs - valid React element (or null) must be returned

I have the following simple code :

var data = [{ email: "bob@gmail.com" },{ email: "toto@gmail.com" }];
var User = React.createClass({
render: function ()
{
    return
    (
        <li>
            {this.props.email}
        </li>
    );
}});

var UserList = React.createClass({        
render: function ()
{            
    var userNodes = this.props.data.map(function (user)
    {
        console.log(user.email);
        return
        (
            <User email={user.email} ></User>
        );
    });            
    return
    (
        <ul>{userNodes}</ul>
    );
}});


ReactDOM.render(<UserList data={data} />, document.getElementById('root'));

and I got this error:

"A valid React element (or null) must be returned. You may have returned undefined, an array or some other invalid object."

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo
1 answers
Answer question

0

Here, the problem is in this line.

return
(
    <li>
        {this.props.email}
    </li>
);

You have put the starting parentheses on the next line so when your code is converted into plain javascript code, it will look something like this.

render: function () {
    return; // A semicolon has been inserted.
    (React.createElement("li", null, this.props.email)); // unreachable code
}

You can see that a semicolon has been inserted by Javascript while interpreting your code, so no value is returned from the render function and you are getting this error.

To avoid this situation, you need to put the starting parentheses after the return statement, so that Javascript won't insert a semicolon until a matching ending parentheses is found. Like this,

return (
     <li>
         {this.props.email}
     </li>
);

Now if you look at the generated code, it will look something like this

render: function () {
    return (React.createElement("li", null, this.props.email));
}

Also, change

return
(
   <ul>{userNodes}</ul>
);

to

return (
    <ul>{userNodes}</ul>
);

Here, is the working fiddle. JSFiddle

I have also fixed the warning,

Each child in an array or iterator should have a unique "key" prop.

by passing key in your User component.

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report
Answer question
Find remote jobs

Discover the new way to find a job!

Top jobs
Top job categories
Business
Post vacancy Pricing Sales
Legal
Terms and conditions Privacy policy
© 2026 PeakU Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Andres GPT
Show me some job opportunities
There's an error!