Auto-subscriptions

Basic Svelte / Stores

Part 1/ Stores/Auto-subscriptions

The app in the previous example works, but there's a subtle bug — the store is subscribed to, but never unsubscribed. If the component was instantiated and destroyed many times, this would result in a memory leak.

Start by declaring unsubscribe in App.svelte:

const unsubscribe = count.subscribe((value) => {
	count_value = value;
});

Calling a subscribe method returns an unsubscribe function.

You now declared unsubscribe, but it still needs to be called, for example through the onDestroy lifecycle hook:

<script>
	import { onDestroy } from 'svelte';
	import { count } from './stores.js';
	import Incrementer from './Incrementer.svelte';
	import Decrementer from './Decrementer.svelte';
	import Resetter from './Resetter.svelte';

	let count_value;

	const unsubscribe = count.subscribe(value => {
		count_value = value;
	});

	onDestroy(unsubscribe);
</script>

<h1>The count is {count_value}</h1>

It starts to get a bit boilerplatey though, especially if your component subscribes to multiple stores. Instead, Svelte has a trick up its sleeve — you can reference a store value by prefixing the store name with $:

<script>
	import { onDestroy } from 'svelte';
	import { count } from './stores.js';
	import Incrementer from './Incrementer.svelte';
	import Decrementer from './Decrementer.svelte';
	import Resetter from './Resetter.svelte';

	let count_value;

	const unsubscribe = count.subscribe(value => {
		count_value = value;
	});

	onDestroy(unsubscribe);
</script>

<h1>The count is {$count}</h1>

Auto-subscription only works with store variables that are declared (or imported) at the top-level scope of a component.

You're not limited to using $count inside the markup, either — you can use it anywhere in the <script> as well, such as in event handlers or reactive declarations.

Any name beginning with $ is assumed to refer to a store value. It's effectively a reserved character — Svelte will prevent you from declaring your own variables with a $ prefix.