Using React Version: 16.8.4 When using blank object or array as a setter for function inside useEffect does cause infinite loop. However using string or number does not trigger this. Here's the minimal example:

function Example() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  const [foo, setFoo] = useState({});

  useEffect(() => {
     console.log("Infinite Loop");
     setCount(100);    // doesn't cause infinite loop.
     // but this does
     // setFoo({});   // or setFoo([]);
  });

  return <div />;
}

I don't know if it's a bug or default behaviour because in earlier version of react (in v16.7.0-alpha.0), both string and number also causing infinite loop which seems to be fixed in latest one.

passing condition in dependency array and checking explicitly is the same thing.