What is the virtual DOM used for?

Virtual DOM (VDOM) is a lightweight representation of the real DOM in memory. It serves to optimize user interface updates.

When the application's state changes, instead of directly manipulating the real DOM (which is an expensive operation), the framework creates a new version of the virtual DOM. Then, the current version of the VDOM is compared with the new one, finding the minimal differences. This process is called the diff algorithm.

The identified differences (patches) are applied to the real DOM in a single batch. This minimizes the number of operations on the real DOM and increases performance, especially for complex and frequently updating interfaces.

Main advantages of VDOM:

• Performance: Reduces the number of direct manipulations with the real DOM.
• Cross-platform compatibility: Allows using the same rendering logic across different platforms (browser, mobile applications).
• Ease of development: Abstracts the developer from the complex details of working with the real DOM.