# Fragments

A common pattern in React is for a component to return multiple elements. Fragments let you group a list of children without adding extra nodes to the DOM.

```js
render() {
  return (
    <React.Fragment>
      <ChildA />
      <ChildB />
      <ChildC />
    </React.Fragment>
  );
}
```

There is also a new [short syntax](broken-reference) for declaring them.

### Motivation <a href="#motivation" id="motivation"></a>

A common pattern is for a component to return a list of children. Take this example React snippet:

```jsx
class Table extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <table>
        <tr>
          <Columns />
        </tr>
      </table>
    );
  }
}
```

`<Columns />` would need to return multiple `<td>` elements in order for the rendered HTML to be valid. If a parent div was used inside the `render()` of `<Columns />`, then the resulting HTML will be invalid.

```jsx
class Columns extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <td>Hello</td>
        <td>World</td>
      </div>
    );
  }
}
```

results in a `<Table />` output of:

```jsx
<table>
  <tr>
    <div>
      <td>Hello</td>
      <td>World</td>
    </div>
  </tr>
</table>
```

Fragments solve this problem.

### Usage <a href="#usage" id="usage"></a>

```
class Columns extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <React.Fragment>
        <td>Hello</td>
        <td>World</td>
      </React.Fragment>
    );
  }
}
```

which results in a correct `<Table />` output of:

```jsx
<table>
  <tr>
    <td>Hello</td>
    <td>World</td>
  </tr>
</table>
```

#### Short Syntax <a href="#short-syntax" id="short-syntax"></a>

There is a new, shorter syntax you can use for declaring fragments. It looks like empty tags:

```
class Columns extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <>
        <td>Hello</td>
        <td>World</td>
      </>
    );
  }
}
```

You can use `<></>` the same way you'd use any other element except that it doesn't support keys or attributes.

#### Keyed Fragments <a href="#keyed-fragments" id="keyed-fragments"></a>

Fragments declared with the explicit `<React.Fragment>` syntax may have keys. A use case for this is mapping a collection to an array of fragments -- for example, to create a description list:

```jsx
function Glossary(props) {
  return (
    <dl>
      {props.items.map(item => (
        // Without the `key`, React will fire a key warning
        <React.Fragment key={item.id}>
          <dt>{item.term}</dt>
          <dd>{item.description}</dd>
        </React.Fragment>
      ))}
    </dl>
  );
}
```

`key` is the only attribute that can be passed to `Fragment`. In the future, we may add support for additional attributes, such as event handlers.

#### Live Demo <a href="#live-demo" id="live-demo"></a>

You can try out the new JSX fragment syntax with this [CodePen](https://codepen.io/reactjs/pen/VrEbjE?editors=1000).
