The Complete Guide to Refs and useRef() in React

Overview

In this post you’ll learn how to use React.useRef() hook to create persisted mutable values (also known as references or refs), as well as access DOM elements.

Mutable values

useRef(initialValue) 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.

import { useRef } from 'react'

function MyComponent() {
  const reference = useRef(initialValue)

  const someHandler = () => {
    // Access reference value:
    const value = reference.current

    // Update reference value:
    reference.current = newValue
  }

  // ...
}

reference.current accesses the reference value, and reference.current = newValue updates the reference value. Pretty simple.

There are 2 rules to remember about references:

1. The value of the reference is persisted (stays the same) between component re-renderings;
2. Updating a reference doesn’t trigger a component re-rendering.

Now, let’s see how to use useRef() in practice.

Use case: logging button clicks

The component LogButtonClicks uses a reference to store the number of clicks on a button:

import { useRef } from 'react'

function LogButtonClicks() {
  const countRef = useRef(0)

  const handle = () => {
    countRef.current++
    console.log(`Clicked ${countRef.current} times`)
  }

  console.log('I rendered!')

  return <button onClick={handle}>Click me</button>
}

Try the demo

const countRef = useRef(0) creates a references countRef initialized with 0.

When the button is clicked, handle function is invoked and the reference value is incremented: countRef.current++. The reference value is logged to the console.

Updating the reference value countRef.current++ doesn’t trigger component re-rendering. This is demonstrated by the fact that 'I rendered!' is logged to the console just once, at initial rendering, and no re-rendering happens when the reference is updated.

Now a reasonable question: what’s the main difference between references and state?

Reference and state diff

Let’s reuse the component LogButtonClicks from the previous section, but this time use useState() hook to count the number of button clicks:

import { useState } from 'react'

function LogButtonClicks() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)

  const handle = () => {
    const updatedCount = count + 1
    console.log(`Clicked ${updatedCount} times`)
    setCount(updatedCount)
  }

  console.log('I rendered!')

  return <button onClick={handle}>Click me</button>
}

Try the demo

Open the demo and click the button. Each time you click, you will see in the console the message 'I rendered!' — meaning that each time the state is updated, the component re-renders.

So, the 2 main differences between references and state:

1. Updating a reference doesn’t trigger re-rendering, while updating the state makes the component re-render;
2. The reference update is synchronous (the updated reference value is available right away), while the state update is asynchronous (the state variable is updated after re-rendering).

From a higher point of view, references store infrastructure data of side-effects, while the state stores information that is directly rendered on the screen.

Use case: implementing a stopwatch

You can store inside a reference infrastructure data of side effects. For example, you can store into reference pointers: timer ids, socket ids, etc.

The component Stopwatch uses setInterval(callback, time) timer function to increase each second the counter of a stopwatch. The timer id is stored into a reference timerIdRef:

import { useRef, useState, useEffect } from 'react'

function Stopwatch() {
  const timerIdRef = useRef(0)
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)

  const startHandler = () => {
    if (timerIdRef.current) {
      return
    }
    timerIdRef.current = setInterval(() => setCount((c) => c + 1), 1000)
  }

  const stopHandler = () => {
    clearInterval(timerIdRef.current)
    timerIdRef.current = 0
  }

  useEffect(() => {
    return () => clearInterval(timerIdRef.current)
  }, [])

  return (
    <div>
      <div>Timer: {count}s</div>
      <div>
        <button onClick={startHandler}>Start</button>
        <button onClick={stopHandler}>Stop</button>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}

Try the demo

startHandler() function, which is invoked when the Start button is clicked, starts the timer and saves the timer id in the reference timerIdRef.current = setInterval(...).

To stop the stopwatch user clicks Stop button. The Stop button handler stopHandler() accesses the timer id from the reference and stops the timer clearInterval(timerIdRef.current).

Additionally, if the component unmounts with the stopwatch active, the cleanup function of useEffect() is going to stop the timer too.

In the stopwatch example, the reference was used to store the infrastructure data — the active timer id.

Side challenge: can you improve the stopwatch by adding a Reset button? Share your solution in a comment below!

Accessing DOM elements

Another useful application of the useRef() hook is to access DOM elements. This is performed in 3 steps:

1. Define the reference to access the element const elementRef = useRef();
2. Assign the reference to ref attribute of the element: <div ref={elementRef}></div>;
3. After mounting, elementRef.current points to the DOM element.

import { useRef, useEffect } from 'react'

function AccessingElement() {
  const elementRef = useRef()

  useEffect(() => {
    const divElement = elementRef.current
    console.log(divElement) // logs <div>I'm an element</div>
  }, [])

  return <div ref={elementRef}>I'm an element</div>
}

Try the demo

Use case: focusing an input

You would need to access DOM elements, for example, to focus on the input field when the component mounts.

To make it work you’ll need to create a reference to the input, assign the reference to ref attribute of the tag, and after mounting call the special method element.focus() on the element.

Here’s a possible implementation of the <InputFocus> component:

import { useRef, useEffect } from 'react'

function InputFocus() {
  const inputRef = useRef()

  useEffect(() => {
    inputRef.current.focus()
  }, [])

  return <input ref={inputRef} type="text" />
}

Try the demo

const inputRef = useRef() creates a reference to hold the input element.

inputRef is then assigned to ref attribute of the input field: <input ref={inputRef} type="text" />.

React then, after mounting, sets inputRef.current to be the input element. Now you can set the focus to the input programatically: inputRef.current.focus().

Ref is null on initial rendering

During initial rendering, the reference supposed to hold the DOM element is empty:

import { useRef, useEffect } from 'react'

function InputFocus() {
  const inputRef = useRef()

  useEffect(() => {
    // Logs `HTMLInputElement`
    console.log(inputRef.current)

    inputRef.current.focus()
  }, [])

  // Logs `undefined` during initial rendering
  console.log(inputRef.current)

  return <input ref={inputRef} type="text" />
}

Try the demo

During initial rendering React still determines what is the output of the component, so there’s no DOM structure created yet. That’s why inputRef.current evaluates to undefined during initial rendering.

useEffect(callback, []) hook invokes the callback right after mounting, when the input element has already been created in DOM.

callback function of the useEffect(callback, []) is the right place to access inputRef.current because it is guaranteed that the DOM is constructed.

Updating references restriction

The function scope of the functional component should either calculate the output or invoke hooks.

That’s why updating a reference (as well as updating state) shouldn’t be performed inside the immediate scope of the component’s function.

The reference must be updated either inside a useEffect() callback or inside handlers (event handlers, timer handlers, etc).

import { useRef, useEffect } from 'react'

function MyComponent({ prop }) {
  const myRef = useRef(0)

  useEffect(() => {
    myRef.current++ // Good!

    setTimeout(() => {
      myRef.current++ // Good!
    }, 1000)
  }, [])

  const handler = () => {
    myRef.current++ // Good!
  }

  myRef.current++ // Bad!

  if (prop) {
    myRef.current++ // Bad!
  }

  return <button onClick={handler}>My button</button>
}

Summary

useRef() hook creates references.

Calling const reference = useRef(initialValue) with the initial value returns a special object named reference. The reference object has a property current: you can use this property to read the reference value reference.current, or update reference.current = newValue.

Between the component re-renderings, the value of the reference is persistent.

Updating a reference, contrary to updating state, doesn’t trigger component re-rendering.

References can also access DOM elements. Assign the reference to ref attribute of the element you’d like to access: <div ref={reference}>Element</div> — and the element is available at reference.current.

Challenge: write a custom hook useEffectSkipFirstRender() that works as useEffect(), only that it doesn’t invoke the callback after initial rendering (Hint: you need to use useRef()). Share your solution in a comment below!