# Why is state not getting passed down to my symbols?

**URL:** <https://forum.builder.io/t/why-is-state-not-getting-passed-down-to-my-symbols/599>\
**Category:** Technical Questions\
**Created:** [April 27, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.builder.io/t/why-is-state-not-getting-passed-down-to-my-symbols/599 "2021-04-27T18:34:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![korey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.builder.io/korey/32/12_2.png) [@korey](https://forum.builder.io/u/korey)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.builder.io/t/why-is-state-not-getting-passed-down-to-my-symbols/599/1 "2021-04-27T18:34:16Z")

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By design, Symbols in Builder have separate `state` from the parent content. What this means is that if you set a property on `state` in the parent content (e.g. `state.someVariable = 'red'`), `state.someVariable` is not available within the symbol. If you try to access `state.someVariable` within the symbol, you will get `undefined`. The same goes for the other way around, if you define a state property within a symbol it will not be available in the parent content.

If you would like to pass data (`state`) into symbols, you can use [inputs](https://www.builder.io/c/docs/symbol-with-inputs) to pass down any data you need to use inside the symbol. If you are trying to pass custom data or functionality into a symbol and are using custom components, another option is to use `context` to make functions and other data available inside your whole page (including any symbols). To do that, [see this example](https://github.com/BuilderIO/builder/tree/master/packages/react#user-content-passing-data-and-functions-down:~:text=context,-%3D)

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**Author:** ![shivaji.mutkule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@shivaji.mutkule](https://forum.builder.io/u/shivaji.mutkule)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:11am UTC](https://forum.builder.io/t/why-is-state-not-getting-passed-down-to-my-symbols/599/2 "2021-05-27T05:11:20Z")

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I am able to bind parent property to child symbol as follows:  
Parent has goalList array that need to pass to goals Symbol (goals symbol uses `state.goals` array to render goal list).

Created +NEW BINDING for symbol as `component.options.symbol.data.goals=state.goalList`  
Here goals on left hand side is array that is responsible for rendering goals list.  
 ![symbol-state-binding](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/builder/original/1X/c1031d67bdce8c321e76a4ab9657d3888cee255b.png)