# Hierarchical State Machines

Statecharts, by definition, are hierarchical - that is to say, they:

• enable refinement of state
• can group similar transitions
• allow isolation
• encourage composability
• and prevent state explosion, which frequently occurs in normal finite state machines.

In XState, state and machine configuration share a common schema, which allows machines to be substates and for states to be infinitely nested.

Here's an example of a traffic light machine with nested states:

const pedestrianStates = {
  initial: 'walk',
  states: {
    walk: {
      on: {
        PED_COUNTDOWN: 'wait'
      }
    },
    wait: {
      on: {
        PED_COUNTDOWN: 'stop'
      }
    },
    stop: {}
  }
};

const lightMachine = Machine({
  key: 'light',
  initial: 'green',
  states: {
    green: {
      on: {
        TIMER: 'yellow',
        POWER_OUTAGE: 'red'
      }
    },
    yellow: {
      on: {
        TIMER: 'red',
        POWER_OUTAGE: 'red'
      }
    },
    red: {
      on: {
        TIMER: 'green',
        POWER_OUTAGE: 'red'
      },
      ...pedestrianStates
    }
  }
});

The 'green' and 'yellow' states are simple states - they have no child states. In contrast, the 'red' state is a composite state since it is composed of substates (the pedestrianStates).

To transition from an initial state, use machine.initialState:

console.log(lightMachine.transition(lightMachine.initialState, 'TIMER').value);
// => 'yellow'

When a composite state is entered, its initial state is immediately entered as well. In the following example:

• the 'red' state is entered
• since 'red' has an initial state of 'walk', the { red: 'walk' } state is ultimately entered.

console.log(lightMachine.transition('yellow', 'TIMER').value);
// => {
//   red: 'walk'
// }

When a simple state does not handle an event, that event is propagated up to its parent state to be handled. In the following example:

• the { red: 'stop' } state does not handle the 'TIMER' event
• the 'TIMER' event is sent to the 'red' parent state, which does handle it.

console.log(lightMachine.transition({ red: 'stop' }, 'TIMER').value);
// => 'green'

If neither a state nor any of its ancestor (parent) states handle an event, no transition happens. In strict mode (specified in the machine configuration), this will throw an error.

console.log(lightMachine.transition('green', 'UNKNOWN').value);
// => 'green'