[Solved]-How to update redux state using a react variable passed up to the component from a child-Reactjs

thought id post my solution as an answer as it combined parts of both answers, but needed bits of both to fully solve the issue.

by combining parts of both the above answers i was able to fully solve the problem. i removed getstate() as both fctmolina and rodrigo amaral suggested. i also simplified the action creator to returning a javascript object, rather than a function, and so no longer needed to include a dispatch function, or use redux-thunk. i passed the newcomment variable into my action creator, and then combined it with my old state inside the reducer. the solution only required a simply definition of the mapdispatchtoprops as a js object containing the action creator getvideocomments, which made it available as a prop to commentsection, and resulted in the action creator being dispatched when the this.props.getvideocomments() function call was made. here is the altered code:

commentsection.js

import react from 'react'
import commentlist from './commentlist'
import commentform from './commentform'


//redux stuff
import {connect} from 'react-redux'
import {getvideocomments} from '../actions'

class commentssection extends react.component{

    constructor(props){
        super(props)
        //this.state={comments:[], loading:false}

    }

    componentdidmount(){
        console.log(this.props.comments)
    }


    handlecommentsubmit = (newcomment) =>{
        // call action creator to dist action to all reducers and update relevant states
        this.props.getvideocomments(newcomment)

    }
    //comments are create in comment form, passed up then sent down through commentlist to individual comment rendering inside comment.js
// comment form oncommentsubmit running everytime it renders, not only on submital
    render(){
        const {comments} = this.props
        console.log({comments})
        return(
            <div>
                <span><h4> comments </h4></span>
                <div classname="ui grid"> 


                    <div classname = "right floated eight wide column" >
                        <commentlist comments={comments}/> 
                    </div>
                    <div classname="left floated eight wide column">

                        <commentform oncommentsubmit={this.handlecommentsubmit}/>

                    </div>
                 </div>
             </div>

        )

    }
}

//redux stuff
//called following state update
const mapstatetoprops = (state) => {

    return {comments:state.videocomments}
}

export default connect(mapstatetoprops,{getvideocomments:getvideocomments})(commentssection)

videocommentsreducer.js

import react from 'react'

 const videocommentsreducer=function(state= [], action){ // reads in previous state
    switch (action.type){
        case 'get_video_comments':
            return [...state, action.payload] //reducer will update state to be payload.videocomments. action only describes what happened
                                         // reducer describes how what happened effects state. could also use previous state and action to create new data
        default: 
            return state
    }
}

export default videocommentsreducer

index.js (for action creator)

import react from 'react'

export const getvideocomments = (newcomment) => {
    return({
        type: 'get_video_comments',
        payload: newcomment
    })
};