---
title: createElement
---
`createElement` lets you create a React element. It serves as an alternative to writing [JSX.](/learn/writing-markup-with-jsx)
```js
const element = createElement(type, props, ...children)
```
---
## Reference {/*reference*/}
### `createElement(type, props, ...children)` {/*createelement*/}
Call `createElement` to create a React element with the given `type`, `props`, and `children`.
```js
import { createElement } from 'react';
function Greeting({ name }) {
return createElement(
'h1',
{ className: 'greeting' },
'Hello'
);
}
```
[See more examples below.](#usage)
#### Parameters {/*parameters*/}
* `type`: The `type` argument must be a valid React component type. For example, it could be a tag name string (such as `'div'` or `'span'`), or a React component (a function, a class, or a special component like [`Fragment`](/reference/react/Fragment)).
* `props`: The `props` argument must either be an object or `null`. If you pass `null`, it will be treated the same as an empty object. React will create an element with props matching the `props` you have passed. Note that `ref` and `key` from your `props` object are special and will *not* be available as `element.props.ref` and `element.props.key` on the returned `element`. They will be available as `element.ref` and `element.key`.
* **optional** `...children`: Zero or more child nodes. They can be any React nodes, including React elements, strings, numbers, [portals](/reference/react-dom/createPortal), empty nodes (`null`, `undefined`, `true`, and `false`), and arrays of React nodes.
#### Returns {/*returns*/}
`createElement` returns a React element object with a few properties:
* `type`: The `type` you have passed.
* `props`: The `props` you have passed except for `ref` and `key`. If the `type` is a component with legacy `type.defaultProps`, then any missing or undefined `props` will get the values from `type.defaultProps`.
* `ref`: The `ref` you have passed. If missing, `null`.
* `key`: The `key` you have passed, coerced to a string. If missing, `null`.
Usually, you'll return the element from your component or make it a child of another element. Although you may read the element's properties, it's best to treat every element as opaque after it's created, and only render it.
#### Caveats {/*caveats*/}
* You must **treat React elements and their props as [immutable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immutable_object)** and never change their contents after creation. In development, React will [freeze](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/freeze) the returned element and its `props` property shallowly to enforce this.
* When you use JSX, **you must start a tag with a capital letter to render your own custom component.** In other words, `` is equivalent to `createElement(Something)`, but `` (lowercase) is equivalent to `createElement('something')` (note it's a string, so it will be treated as a built-in HTML tag).
* You should only **pass children as multiple arguments to `createElement` if they are all statically known,** like `createElement('h1', {}, child1, child2, child3)`. If your children are dynamic, pass the entire array as the third argument: `createElement('ul', {}, listItems)`. This ensures that React will [warn you about missing `key`s](/learn/rendering-lists#keeping-list-items-in-order-with-key) for any dynamic lists. For static lists this is not necessary because they never reorder.
---
## Usage {/*usage*/}
### Creating an element without JSX {/*creating-an-element-without-jsx*/}
If you don't like [JSX](/learn/writing-markup-with-jsx) or can't use it in your project, you can use `createElement` as an alternative.
To create an element without JSX, call `createElement` with some type, props, and children:
```js [[1, 5, "'h1'"], [2, 6, "{ className: 'greeting' }"], [3, 7, "'Hello ',"], [3, 8, "createElement('i', null, name),"], [3, 9, "'. Welcome!'"]]
import { createElement } from 'react';
function Greeting({ name }) {
return createElement(
'h1',
{ className: 'greeting' },
'Hello ',
createElement('i', null, name),
'. Welcome!'
);
}
```
The children are optional, and you can pass as many as you need (the example above has three children). This code will display a `` header with a greeting. For comparison, here is the same example rewritten with JSX:
```js [[1, 3, "h1"], [2, 3, "className=\\"greeting\\""], [3, 4, "Hello {name}. Welcome!"], [1, 5, "h1"]]
function Greeting({ name }) {
return (
Hello {name}. Welcome!
);
}
```
To render your own React component, pass a function like `Greeting` as the type instead of a string like `'h1'`:
```js [[1, 2, "Greeting"], [2, 2, "{ name: 'Taylor' }"]]
export default function App() {
return createElement(Greeting, { name: 'Taylor' });
}
```
With JSX, it would look like this:
```js [[1, 2, "Greeting"], [2, 2, "name=\\"Taylor\\""]]
export default function App() {
return ;
}
```
Here is a complete example written with `createElement`:
```js
import { createElement } from 'react';
function Greeting({ name }) {
return createElement(
'h1',
{ className: 'greeting' },
'Hello ',
createElement('i', null, name),
'. Welcome!'
);
}
export default function App() {
return createElement(
Greeting,
{ name: 'Taylor' }
);
}
```
```css
.greeting {
color: darkgreen;
font-family: Georgia;
}
```
And here is the same example written using JSX:
```js
function Greeting({ name }) {
return (
Hello {name}. Welcome!
);
}
export default function App() {
return ;
}
```
```css
.greeting {
color: darkgreen;
font-family: Georgia;
}
```
Both coding styles are fine, so you can use whichever one you prefer for your project. The main benefit of using JSX compared to `createElement` is that it's easy to see which closing tag corresponds to which opening tag.
#### What is a React element, exactly? {/*what-is-a-react-element-exactly*/}
An element is a lightweight description of a piece of the user interface. For example, both `` and `createElement(Greeting, { name: 'Taylor' })` produce an object like this:
```js
// Slightly simplified
{
type: Greeting,
props: {
name: 'Taylor'
},
key: null,
ref: null,
}
```
**Note that creating this object does not render the `Greeting` component or create any DOM elements.**
A React element is more like a description--an instruction for React to later render the `Greeting` component. By returning this object from your `App` component, you tell React what to do next.
Creating elements is extremely cheap so you don't need to try to optimize or avoid it.