How to Build Forms in React Using React Hook Form
Building forms in a React application can be complex and time-consuming. With the help of the React Hook Form library, it’s possible to easily add high-performant forms to your React application.
React Hook Form is a library for building forms in React that simplifies the process of creating complex and reusable forms. If you are looking to build a React app you should learn how to build forms in React using the React Hook Form library.
Installing React Hook Form
To start using React Hook Form, you must install it using the npm or yarn package managers.
To install React Hook Form using npm, run the following command in your terminal:
To install React Hook Form using yarn, run the following command:
Creating a Form Using React Hook Form
To create a form using React Hook Form, you must utilize theuseFormhook. TheuseFormhook gives you access to methods and properties that you’ll use tobuild and manage your forms in your React application.
Here is an example showing how to use theuseFormhook:
The React Hook Form library uses theregistermethod to register your input values to the hook. Theregistermethod connects the input fields of a form to the React Hook Form library so that the library can track and validate the input fields.
In the code block above, you register an input with the name ‘firstname.’ ThehandleSubmitmethod of the React Hook Form library handles the submission of the form.
To handle form submission, you’ll pass the callback functiononSubmitto thehandleSubmitmethod. TheonSubmitfunction will receive an object containing the values of all the form inputs.
Validate Inputs With Register Method
Theregistermethod allows you to set up validation rules for your input fields. To add validation to your input fields, you pass an object with validation rules as the second argument to theregistermethod.
In this example, you add a validation rule to the “firstname” input field and two validation rules to the “password”. Therequiredrule specifies that the user needs to fill in the input fields, and they cannot submit the form if the fields are empty.
Themaxlengthrule sets the input value’s maximum number of alphabetic letters. Aside from therequiredandmaxlengthmethods, you can add other validation rules, such asmin,max,minLength,pattern, andvalidate.
Theminrule specifies the minimum value for an input field and themaxrule specifies its maximum value.
you may use theminandmaxrules with number-type inputs, like this:
The value of the input field above must be at least 18 and not more than 35.
TheminLengthrule is similar to themaxLengthrule but sets the minimum number of alphabetical letters instead:
In this example, the minLength rule specifies that the input’s value should be at least 10 characters long.
pattern & validate
Thepatternrule specifies a regular expression pattern that the input value must match. Thevalidaterule allows you to define a custom validation function to validate the input value. The function should return eithertrueor a string error message.
For example:
In this example, the “firstname” input uses thepatternrule. Thepatternrequires that the input value only contain alphabetical characters (uppercase and lowercase).
The “test” input uses thevalidaterule to define a custom validation function that checks if its value is less than or equal to 12.
Handling Errors in Your Form
The React Hook Form library provides a built-in mechanism forhandling JavaScript errorsin your forms. ThehandleSubmitfunction, called when the user submits the form, returns a promise that resolves with the form data if validation is successful.
However, if any validation errors occur, the promise is rejected with an error object that contains the validation errors.
Here’s an example of how to handle errors using thehandleSubmitfunction:
In this code block, theformStateobject gains access to the errors of each field. Theerrorsobject stores the validation errors for each input field. Theerrorsobject conditionally renders an error message for each invalid field.
For thefirstnameinput field, if therequiredrule is not met, an error message—“Please input your Firstname”—will display next to the input field. If the value of theageinput field is outside the allowed range, an error message will display.
If the value is less than 18, the error message will be “You are too young for this site,” and if the value is greater than 35, the error message will be “You are too old for this site”.
Now You Can Build Reliable Forms in React
Building forms in React can be a complex and time-consuming process. Still, React Hook Form simplifies this task by providing an easy-to-use and flexible library for managing form data and validation.
With the help of the useForm hook, register method, and handleSubmit method, building forms in React becomes a more efficient and streamlined process. You can create functional forms, in turn improving the user experience and overall quality of your React applications.
Forms are a great use case for state management with React hooks.
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