Using useRef
with native elements can be a bit of a pain. You need to specify the type of the element you're targeting, but it's not always clear what type you should be using.
import React, { useRef } from "react";
const Component = () => {
// What goes here?
const audioRef = useRef<NoIdeaWhatGoesHere>(null);
return <audio ref={audioRef}>Hello</audio>;
};
A simple solution is to hover over the type of ref
to check what it accepts:
import React, { useRef } from "react";
const Component = () => {
// What goes here?
const audioRef = useRef<HTMLAudioElement>(null);
return <audio ref={audioRef}>Hello</audio>;};
But there's an easier way.
#
You can use ElementRef
, a type helper from React, to easily extract the type from the element you're targeting.
import React, { useRef, ElementRef } from "react";
const Component = () => {
const audioRef = useRef<ElementRef<"audio">>(null);
return <audio ref={audioRef}>Hello</audio>;
};
This even works with custom components that use forwardRef
. You can use typeof
to pass them to ElementRef
, and it'll extract the type of the element that the component is forwarding to.
import { OtherComponent } from "./other-component";
import React, { useRef, ElementRef } from "react";
// Pass it in via typeof!
type OtherComponentRef = ElementRef<typeof OtherComponent>;
const Component = () => {
const ref = useRef<OtherComponentRef>(null);
return <OtherComponent ref={ref}>Hello</OtherComponent>;
};
If you're using the previous solution (with HTMLAudioElement
or HTMLDivElement
, etc.), there's no reason to change it. But if you're ever unsure what type to use, ElementRef
is a great helper.
And if you want more tips like this, check out my free React and TypeScript beginner's course. There are 21 interactive exercises packed with TypeScript tips and tricks for React apps.