React component initialize state from props

Question

In React, are there any real differences between these two implementations? Some friends tell me that the FirstComponent is the pattern, but I don't see why. The SecondComponent seems simpler because the render is called only once.

First:

import React, { PropTypes } from 'react'

class FirstComponent extends React.Component {

  state = {
    description: ''
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    const { description} = this.props;
    this.setState({ description });
  }

  render () {
    const {state: { description }} = this;    
    return (
      <input type="text" value={description} /> 
    );
  }
}

export default FirstComponent;

Second:

import React, { PropTypes } from 'react'

class SecondComponent extends React.Component {

  state = {
    description: ''
  }

  constructor (props) => {
    const { description } = props;
    this.state = {description};
  }

  render () {
    const {state: { description }} = this;    
    return (
      <input type="text" value={description} />   
    );
  }
}

export default SecondComponent;

Update: I changed setState() to this.state = {} (thanks joews), However, I still don't see the difference. Is one better than other?

Answer 1

It should be noted that it is an anti-pattern to copy properties that never change to the state (just access .props directly in that case). If you have a state variable that will change eventually but starts with a value from .props, you don't even need a constructor call - these local variables are initialized after a call to the parent's constructor:

class FirstComponent extends React.Component {
  state = {
    x: this.props.initialX,
    // You can even call functions and class methods:
    y: this.someMethod(this.props.initialY),
  };
}

This is a shorthand equivalent to the answer from @joews below. It seems to only work on more recent versions of es6 transpilers, I have had issues with it on some webpack setups. If this doesn't work for you, you can try adding the babel plugin babel-plugin-transform-class-properties, or you can use the non-shorthand version by @joews below.