How to Set a Default Value in React Hooks for Input Fields

Learn how to easily set a default value in React Hooks for your input fields, keeping user experience in mind.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/68262431/ asked by the user 'yogesh sonawane' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/15760691/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/68262779/ provided by the user 'Cholewka' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/11400377/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Getting Default value in React Hook?

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/licensing
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
How to Set a Default Value in React Hooks for Input Fields

When working with forms in React, you may often encounter the need to set default values for your input fields. This can be particularly helpful when you want to provide a starting point for the user or maintain a consistent state throughout your component lifecycle. In this guide, we'll explore how to set a default value in React using hooks, specifically with the useState function. Let’s dive in!

Understanding the Problem

Imagine you have an input field where you want to display a default value. For instance, consider an input field that's supposed to show the word "one" when the component is rendered. You'd also like to set this default value into the component’s state using React hooks. Here's a simplified view of our starting code:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

With React hooks, we would use the useState function like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Your goal is to set the input field's default value ("one") into state. You might be thinking about using the onChange function, but you’re concerned that it won’t work for your needs. So, how exactly can we achieve this?

Solution: Setting Default Values with React Hooks

To set a default value in your input field and adjust your state accordingly, you'll want to follow these steps:

Step 1: Declare Your State Variable

First, you need to initialize your state variable with the desired default value. For our example, we would want to initialize it to "one". Here's how to do it:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

With this code, the state variable def will store the default value "one".

Step 2: Create a Change Handler

Next, you need a function to handle changes to the input field. This will allow the input field to update the state variable whenever the user types something new:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This function captures the current value of the input field and updates the state whenever there’s a change.

Step 3: Link Your Input Field to State

Finally, you need to link your input field to the state variable and its change handler. To do this, you can use the value attribute for binding, along with the onChange event to capture user input:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Complete Code Sample

Bringing it all together, here’s how the complete component will look:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Putting It All Together

Now, when you render the Component, the input field will initially display "one". Users can modify this value as they type, which will update the state in real-time.

When to Use Read-Only Inputs

If you want to disable user input and make the input read-only while still showing a default value, you can remove the onChange handler and assign a readOnly attribute instead:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This approach would prevent any changes to the input, maintaining the original state without allowing modification.

Conclusion

Setting a default value in input fields using React hooks is quite straightforward! By following the above steps, you can easily create user-friendly forms that provide a consistent starting point for your users. This not only boosts the user experience but also enhances your overall application’s functionality. Happy coding!

Видео How to Set a Default Value in React Hooks for Input Fields канала vlogize