svelte/documentation/docs/99-legacy/02-legacy-reactive-assignments.md

title: Reactive $: statements

In runes mode, reactions to state updates are handled with the $derived and $effect runes.

In legacy mode, any top-level statement (i.e. not inside a block or a function) can be made reactive by prefixing it with a $: label. These statements run after other code in the <script> and before the component markup is rendered, then whenever the values that they depend on change.

<script>
	let a = 1;
	let b = 2;

	// this is a 'reactive statement', and it will re-run
	// when `a`, `b` or `sum` change
	$: console.log(`${a} + ${b} = ${sum}`);

	// this is a 'reactive assignment' — `sum` will be
	// recalculated when `a` or `b` change. It is
	// not necessary to declare `sum` separately
	$: sum = a + b;
</script>

Statements are ordered topologically by their dependencies and their assignments: since the console.log statement depends on sum, sum is calculated first even though it appears later in the source.

Multiple statements can be combined by putting them in a block:

// @noErrors
$: {
	// recalculate `total` when `items` changes
	total = 0;

	for (const item of items) {
		total += item.value;
	}
}

The left-hand side of a reactive assignments can be an identifier, or it can be a destructuring assignment:

// @noErrors
$: ({ larry, moe, curly } = stooges);

Understanding dependencies

The dependencies of a $: statement are determined at compile time — they are whichever variables are referenced (but not assigned to) inside the statement.

In other words, a statement like this will not re-run when count changes, because the compiler cannot 'see' the dependency:

// @noErrors
let count = 0;
let double = () => count * 2;

$: doubled = double();

Similarly, topological ordering will fail if dependencies are referenced indirectly: z will never update, because y is not considered 'dirty' when the update occurs. Moving $: z = y below $: setY(x) will fix it:

<script>
	let x = 0;
	let y = 0;

	$: z = y;
	$: setY(x);

	function setY(value) {
		y = value;
	}
</script>

Browser-only code

Reactive statements run during server-side rendering as well as in the browser. This means that any code that should only run in the browser must be wrapped in an if block:

// @noErrors
$: if (browser) {
	document.title = title;
}