React Hooks: useRef
Tags: react, reactnative, webdev, 100daysofcode
Published: 2021-09-13 18:46:52

## 1. Definition

**useRef** is a built-in React hook that accepts one argument as the initial value and returns a reference (aka ref). 

A reference is an object having a special property `current`

There are two main uses of **useRef**;

- Accessing the DOM nodes or React elements
- Keeping a mutable variable.

```jsx
const refContainer = useRef(initialValue);
```

## 2. Accessing the DOM Elements


**This is performed in 3 steps:**

1. Define the reference to access the element 
2. Assign the reference to `ref` attribute of the element
3. After mounting, `elementRef.current` points to the DOM element.

This is equivalent of

```jsx
import React, { useRef } from "react";

const CustomTextInput = () => {
  const textInput = useRef();

  focusTextInput = () => textInput.current.focus();

  return (
    <>
      <input type="text" ref={textInput} />
      <button onClick={focusTextInput}>Focus the text input</button>
    </>
  );
}
```

## 3. Keeping a Mutable Variable

We have two ways of keeping data between re-renders:

- **In the component state**: Every time the state changes, the component will be re-rendered.
- **In an instance variable**: The variable will persist for the full lifetime of the component. Changes in an instance variable won’t generate a re-render.

---

In functional components this would be;

- **In a state variable**: `useState` or `useReducer`. Updates in state variables will cause a re-render of the component.
- **In a ref:** Equivalent to instance variables in class components. Mutating the `.current` property won’t cause a re-render.

## 4. Updating Ref

Updating a ref variable is a side effect therefore needs to be done inside **useEffect or useLayoutEffect**

In React all side effect should be inside Layout Phase.

![React Lifecycle](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/j688bomywg4obk5oygir.png)
 

```jsx
import React, { useRef } from "react";

const RenderCounter = () => {
  const counter = useRef(0);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    // Every time the component has been re-rendered,
    // the counter is incremented
    counter.current = counter.current + 1;
  }); 
  
  return (
    <h1>{`The component has been re-rendered ${counter} times`}</h1>
  );
};
```

## 5. Summary

The useRef Hook lets us create mutable variables inside functional components.

There are three main key points that you should keep in mind when using the useRef Hook;

- A ref created with useRef will be created only when the component **has been mounted** and preserved for the full lifecycle.
- Refs can be used for accessing DOM nodes or React elements, and for storing mutable variables (like with instance variables in class components).
- **Updating a ref is a side effect** so it should be done only inside a **useEffect (or useLayoutEffect) or inside an event handler.**

## Links
- [Hooks API Reference - React](https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-reference.html#useref)

- [React useRef Hook](https://medium.com/trabe/react-useref-hook-b6c9d39e2022)

- [The Complete Guide to useRef() and Refs in React](https://dmitripavlutin.com/react-useref-guide/)