JAVASCRIPT

useref hook react

import React, { useState, useRef, useEffect } from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'

function App() {
  const intervalRef = useRef()
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)

  useEffect(() => {
    intervalRef.current = setInterval(() => setCount(count => count + 1), 1000)

    return () => {
      clearInterval(intervalRef.current)
    }
  }, [])

  return (
    <>
      <div style={{ fontSize: 120 }}>{count}</div>
      <button
        onClick={() => {
          clearInterval(intervalRef.current)
        }}
      >
        Stop
      </button>
    </>
  )
}

render(<App />, document.querySelector('#app'))

useRef() in react

function TextInputWithFocusButton() {
  const inputEl = useRef(null);
  const onButtonClick = () => {
    // `current` points to the mounted text input element
    inputEl.current.focus();
  };
  return (
    <>
      <input ref={inputEl} type="text" />
      <button onClick={onButtonClick}>Focus the input</button>
    </>
  );
}

useref in functional component

import React, { useRef } from 'react';

function TextInputWithFocusButton() {
  const inputEl = useRef(null);
  const onButtonClick = () => {
    // `current` points to the mounted text input element
    inputEl.current.focus();
  };
  return (
    <>
      <input ref={inputEl} type="text" />
      <button onClick={onButtonClick}>Focus the input</button>
    </>
  );
}

what does useref do react

const refContainer = useRef(initialValue);
//useRef returns a mutable ref object whose .current property is initialized to the passed argument (initialValue). 
//The returned object will persist for the full lifetime of the component.

what is useref in react

useRef is an kind of alternative to useState hook , with useRef you can get an reference to  an element and than use the DOM/JS properties to modify it .
You can even call useRef as an tool which is used to apply all the DOM properties as you were doing in Javascript before coming to React.
If you use useRef than this  apparoch is called un-controlled components.

useref in react

import { useRef } from 'react';

function LogButtonClicks() {
  const countRef = useRef(0);  
  const handle = () => {
    countRef.current++;    console.log(`Clicked ${countRef.current} times`);
  };

  console.log('I rendered!');

  return <button onClick={handle}>Click me</button>;
}

React useRef Hook

//Use useRef to track application renders
import { useState, useEffect, useRef } from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom/client";

function App() {
  const [inputValue, setInputValue] = useState("");
  const count = useRef(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    count.current = count.current + 1;
  });

  return (
    <>
      <input
        type="text"
        value={inputValue}
        onChange={(e) => setInputValue(e.target.value)}
      />
      <h1>Render Count: {count.current}</h1>
    </>
  );
}

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root'));
root.render(<App />);