React Router - Why is history.replace pushing instead of replacing?

The behavior of history.replace in React Router is not to push but to replace the current URL in the history stack with a new one, effectively acting as a "replace" operation.

If you observe that history.replace seems to be pushing instead of replacing, it might be due to a misunderstanding or a mistaken assumption about its behavior. To clarify, let's look at the typical usage and behavior of history.replace.

history.replace(path, [state]) is a method provided by the history object in React Router. It allows you to replace the current URL in the history stack with a new one specified by the path parameter. This means that the current URL will be replaced, and the user won't see a new entry in the browser's history.

Here's an example of using history.replace:

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import { useHistory } from 'react-router-dom';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const history = useHistory();

  const handleClick = () => {
    // Replace the current URL with a new one
    history.replace('/new-route');
  };

  return <button onClick={handleClick}>Replace URL</button>;
};

In this example, when the button is clicked, the current URL will be replaced with /new-route, and the user won't be able to navigate back to the previous URL using the browser's back button.

It's essential to distinguish between history.replace and history.push. The history.push method adds a new entry to the history stack, creating a new URL, while history.replace replaces the current entry in the stack without creating a new one.

If you find that history.replace seems to be pushing instead of replacing, double-check the implementation and ensure that you are indeed using history.replace correctly, as shown in the example above. If you are still experiencing unexpected behavior, inspect other parts of your codebase to check for possible interactions that might be affecting the history stack.