What is react-hook-form?
The react-hook-form npm package is a flexible and performant library that simplifies the process of working with forms in React applications. It provides hooks and components to manage form state and validation with minimal re-renders.
What are react-hook-form's main functionalities?
Easy Form State Management
This feature allows you to easily manage form state, handle form submissions, and integrate form validation.
import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
function MyForm() {
const { register, handleSubmit, watch, errors } = useForm();
const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);
return (
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
<input name='example' defaultValue='test' ref={register} />
<input name='exampleRequired' ref={register({ required: true })} />
{errors.exampleRequired && <span>This field is required</span>}
<input type='submit' />
</form>
);
}
Form Validation
This feature provides built-in validation methods and allows you to create custom validation rules for your form inputs.
import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
function MyForm() {
const { register, handleSubmit, errors } = useForm();
const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);
return (
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
<input name='example' ref={register({ required: 'This is required' })} />
{errors.example && <p>{errors.example.message}</p>}
<input type='submit' />
</form>
);
}
Integrating with UI Libraries
This feature allows you to easily integrate react-hook-form with other UI libraries like react-select, material-ui, and antd.
import React from 'react';
import { useForm, Controller } from 'react-hook-form';
import Select from 'react-select';
function MyForm() {
const { control, handleSubmit } = useForm();
const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);
return (
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
<Controller
as={Select}
options={[{ value: 'chocolate', label: 'Chocolate' }]}
name='ReactSelect'
isClearable
control={control}
rules={{ required: true }}
/>
<input type='submit' />
</form>
);
}
Other packages similar to react-hook-form
formik
Formik is another popular form library for React. It is known for its simplicity and support for complex form logic. Compared to react-hook-form, Formik may have a slightly larger bundle size and potentially more re-renders, but it offers a more declarative API and built-in helpers for managing form state.
redux-form
Redux-form integrates form state into the Redux store, providing deep integration with Redux. It is suitable for complex form handling in large-scale applications. However, it can be overkill for simple forms and may lead to more boilerplate compared to react-hook-form, which is more lightweight and requires less setup.
final-form
Final Form is a subscription-based form state management library that separates form state from the UI layer. It is framework-agnostic and can be used with React via react-final-form. It offers fine-grained control over form rendering, but react-hook-form tends to have better performance due to its use of uncontrolled components.