What is the relation between stateful and stateless widgets in Flutter

Question

A stateful widget is defined as any widget which changes its state within its lifetime. But it is a very common practice for a StatelessWidget to have a StatefulWidget as one of its children. Doesn't StatelessWidget become stateful if it has StatefulWidget as one of its children?

I tried looking into the documentation as part of the code of StatelessWidget, but couldn't figure out how a StatelessWidget can have Statefulwidget as its children and still remain StatelessWidget.

What is the relation and difference between stateful and stateless widgets in Flutter?

Answer 1

In Flutter, a widget is either stateless or stateful. The main difference between these two types of widgets is that stateless widgets are immutable, meaning that their properties cannot change once they are built, while stateful widgets are mutable and can change their properties during their lifetime.

Stateful widgets are used when you need to build a widget that can change its appearance based on some dynamic state. For example, a button that changes color when it is pressed, or a text input field that updates its content as the user types.

On the other hand, stateless widgets are used when you need to build a widget that doesn't change its appearance based on any dynamic state. For example, an icon or a label that always displays the same text or image.

To answer your question, a StatelessWidget can have a StatefulWidget as one of its children without becoming stateful itself. The child widget, in this case, is the one that manages its state, and the parent widget remains stateless.

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