Statefuls widget initstate

Question

I have a pretty simple question, since we all know in flutter you cant access the initstate method in a stateless widget, but I have been facing some situations where I have a stateless widget that will never need to be rebuilt again but I need to access the initstate method to get data from an API or something else, so my question is, is it worth it to convert said widget to a stateful widget to access the initstate method or should I just call the method I want to call in the build method of a stateless widget.

the reason I'm asking is that I know that a stateful widget is considered expensive for the device.

Answer 1

... I know that a stateful widget is considered expensive for the device.

I dare to differ. Flutter's rebuild is intelligent. Infact Flutter calls the build method of the StatelessWidgets widgets during every repaint.

... is it worth it to convert said widget to a stateful widget to access the initstate method

I feel yes. Don't worry about performance. Flutter is very efficient.

... or should I just call the method I want to call in the build method of a stateless widget.

No please. Flutter is reactive. The build method should be called only when data is ready. The build method is synchronous and should avoid doing any asynchronous computation.

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Take a deep dive into how Flutter is built at the docs https://docs.flutter.dev/resources/architectural-overview