This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Toufiq Choudhari
When working with React, we often hear about useState and useEffect, but there’s another very useful hook called useRef. While it might seem less popular at first glance, useRef is a powerful tool that serves two main purposes: it gives you a way to persist values across renders without triggering a re-render, and it allows you to directly reference DOM elements inside functional components.
The most common use case for useRef is to access and manipulate DOM elements. For example, if you have an input field and you want to focus on it automatically when the page loads, you can create a reference using useRef and attach it to the input element. React will then store a reference to the actual DOM node, which you can access using ref.current. This is very similar to how document.getElementById works in plain JavaScript, but it is fully integrated into React’s lifecycle.
Another key feature of useRef is that it can hold a value that does not change between re-renders. Unlike useState, changing a ref does not cause the component to re-render. This makes it useful for storing things like timers, previous values, or any data that you want to keep around without affecting the UI. For example, you might use useRef to store the previous value of a prop, or to keep track of whether a component has mounted before.
An important detail is that useRef always returns an object with a single property called current. This property is mutable, meaning you can assign anything to it — a number, a string, a DOM node, or even a function. Because React does not watch for changes to ref.current, updating it will not trigger a render, making it ideal for storing data that should not cause the component to update.
In practice, useRef often complements useEffect. For instance, you can create a ref for an element, then in a useEffect hook focus on that element once the component mounts. Or you can use it to store the ID of a setInterval so that you can clear the timer later without worrying about re-renders.
In summary, useRef is a versatile hook that helps you both interact with the DOM and persist values across renders without causing unnecessary updates. By mastering useRef, you gain more control over your React components, making them not only more powerful but also more efficient.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Toufiq Choudhari
Toufiq Choudhari | Sciencx (2025-08-28T05:39:18+00:00) Understanding useRef in React. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/08/28/understanding-useref-in-react-2/
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