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Tyler McDonald
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 16,700 PointsWhy do we need to use refs in this example, since React documentation seems to discourage them?
After reading up on refs from the React docs, it seems they discourage the use of them if the same functionality could be achieved declaratively (which I assume means without using refs).
In that case, why would Guil convert it to using refs?
1 Answer
Laura Coronel
Treehouse TeacherHey Tyler McDonald, At the beginning of the video Guil explains this! He says:
it's acceptable to use the searchText state to update the gif state here onSubmit especially in a small app like this one.
He's just showing you that you can use refs instead of creating a state. One reasoning he give is:
If you're building a larger app where searchText may be used in other parts of the app or you simply don't want a state that's dependent on another state. You can also use a ref to access the value of the input field.
You are right! React does prefer the first method, Guil is just showing a different way to do it. Hope this helps!