Reactive values

Reactive Values

A reactive.Value is an object that cause reactive functions to re-execute when their value changes. For example, the user inputs to a Shiny application (like input.x) are reactive.Value objects.

In the example below, the reactive value input.x() is used in an output; when it changes, it causes the output function to re-execute.

@output
@render.text
def txt():
    return str(input.x())

But input values are not the only reactive.Value objects one can use in an application. reactive.Values can also be created explicitly, like so:

# Create a reactive value with a starting value of "Hello"
x = reactive.Value("Hello")

With this reactive value, you can access its value with x() (or equivalently, x.get(), if you want to be more explicit). You can set its value with x.set(<value>).

Note

Although the inputs for a Shiny application are reactive.Values, they are read-only. If you call input.x.set(1), it will throw an error. Input values can only be set by interacting with the application in the client web browser.

Reactive values are useful when you want to do more sophisticated things with reactivity. Here’s an example. In this application, there is a button; when it’s clicked it causes a reactive value x to toggle between True and False.

#| standalone: true
#| components: [editor, viewer]
#| layout: vertical

from shiny import App, reactive, render, ui

app_ui = ui.page_fluid(
    ui.input_action_button("toggle", "Toggle value"),
    ui.output_text_verbatim("txt"),
)

def server(input, output, session):
    x = reactive.Value(True)

    @reactive.Effect
    @reactive.event(input.toggle)
    def _():
        x.set(not x())

    @output
    @render.text
    def txt():
        return str(x())

app = App(app_ui, server)

Notice that we used some of the other reactive components that we discussed previously: there is a reactive.Effect that’s used to change x’s value, with the call to x.set().

That function also uses the @reactive.event() decorator so that it runs only when the input.toggle button is pressed. If we didn’t do that, then the reactive.Effect would re-execute whenever x() changed — but since it is itself changing x(), it would trigger itself, resulting in an infinite loop. The @reactive.event(input.toggle) therefore does two things for us: it prevents the infinite loop, and it makes sure that the function executes only when the input.toggle button is pressed.