# Props
This page assumes you've already read the Components Basics. Read that first if you are new to components.
# Prop Types
So far, we've only seen props listed as an array of strings:
props: ['title', 'likes', 'isPublished', 'commentIds', 'author']
Usually though, you'll want every prop to be a specific type of value. In these cases, you can list props as an object, where the properties' names and values contain the prop names and types, respectively:
props: {
title: String,
likes: Number,
isPublished: Boolean,
commentIds: Array,
author: Object,
callback: Function,
contactsPromise: Promise // or any other constructor
}
This not only documents your component, but will also warn users in the browser's Javascript console if they pass the wrong type. You'll learn much more about type checks and other prop validations further down this page.
# Passing Static or Dynamic Props
So far, you've seen props passed a static value, like in:
<blog-post title="My journey with Vue">blog-post>
You've also seen props assigned dynamically with v-bind
or its shortcut, the :
character, such as in:
<blog-post :title="post.title">blog-post>
<blog-post :title="post.title + ' by ' + post.author.name">blog-post>
In the two examples above, we happen to pass string values, but any type of value can actually be passed to a prop.
# Passing a Number
<blog-post :likes="42">blog-post>
<blog-post :likes="post.likes">blog-post>
# Passing a Boolean
<blog-post is-published>blog-post>
<blog-post :is-published="false">blog-post>
<blog-post :is-published="post.isPublished">blog-post>
# Passing an Array
<blog-post :comment-ids="[234, 266, 273]">blog-post>
<blog-post :comment-ids="post.commentIds">blog-post>
# Passing an Object
<blog-post
:author="{
name: 'Veronica',
company: 'Veridian Dynamics'
}"
>blog-post>
<blog-post :author="post.author">blog-post>
# Passing the Properties of an Object
If you want to pass all the properties of an object as props, you can use v-bind
without an argument (v-bind
instead of :prop-name
). For example, given a post
object:
post: {
id: 1,
title: 'My Journey with Vue'
}
The following template:
<blog-post v-bind="post">blog-post>
Will be equivalent to:
<blog-post v-bind:id="post.id" v-bind:title="post.title">blog-post>
# One-Way Data Flow
All props form a one-way-down binding between the child property and the parent one: when the parent property updates, it will flow down to the child, but not the other way around. This prevents child components from accidentally mutating the parent's state, which can make your app's data flow harder to understand.
In addition, every time the parent component is updated, all props in the child component will be refreshed with the latest value. This means you should not attempt to mutate a prop inside a child component. If you do, Vue will warn you in the console.
There are usually two cases where it's tempting to mutate a prop:
The prop is used to pass in an initial value; the child component wants to use it as a local data property afterwards. In this case, it's best to define a local data property that uses the prop as its initial value:
props: ['initialCounter'],
data() {
return {
counter: this.initialCounter
}
}
The prop is passed in as a raw value that needs to be transformed. In this case, it's best to define a computed property using the prop's value:
props: ['size'],
computed: {
normalizedSize: function () {
return this.size.trim().toLowerCase()
}
}
Note
Note that objects and arrays in Javascript are passed by reference, so if the prop is an array or object, mutating the object or array itself inside the child component will affect parent state.
# Prop Validation
Components can specify requirements for their props, such as the types you've already seen. If a requirement isn't met, Vue will warn you in the browser's Javascript console. This is especially useful when developing a component that's intended to be used by others.
To specify prop validations, you can provide an object with validation requirements to the value of props
, instead of an array of strings. For example:
app.component('my-component', {
props: {
// Basic type check (`null` and `undefined` values will pass any type validation)
propA: Number,
// Multiple possible types
propB: [String, Number],
// Required string
propC: {
type: String,
required: true
},
// Number with a default value
propD: {
type: Number,
default: 100
},
// Object with a default value
propE: {
type: Object,
// Object or array defaults must be returned from
// a factory function
default: function() {
return { message: 'hello' }
}
},
// Custom validator function
propF: {
validator: function(value) {
// The value must match one of these strings
return ['success', 'warning', 'danger'].indexOf(value) !== -1
}
},
// Function with a default value
propG: {
type: Function,
// Unlike object or array default, this is not a factory function - this is a function to serve as a default value
default: function() {
return 'Default function'
}
}
}
})
When prop validation fails, Vue will produce a console warning (if using the development build).
Note
Note that props are validated before a component instance is created, so instance properties (e.g. data
, computed
, etc) will not be available inside default
or validator
functions.
# Type Checks
The type
can be one of the following native constructors:
- String
- Number
- Boolean
- Array
- Object
- Date
- Function
- Symbol
In addition, type
can also be a custom constructor function and the assertion will be made with an instanceof
check. For example, given the following constructor function exists:
function Person(firstName, lastName) {
this.firstName = firstName
this.lastName = lastName
}
You could use:
app.component('blog-post', {
props: {
author: Person
}
})
to validate that the value of the author
prop was created with new Person
.
# Prop Casing (camelCase vs kebab-case)
HTML attribute names are case-insensitive, so browsers will interpret any uppercase characters as lowercase. That means when you're using in-DOM templates, camelCased prop names need to use their kebab-cased (hyphen-delimited) equivalents:
const app = Vue.createApp({})
app.component('blog-post', {
// camelCase in Javascript
props: ['postTitle'],
template: '<h4>{{ postTitle }}h4>'
})
<blog-post post-title="hello!">blog-post>
Again, if you're using string templates, this limitation does not apply.