How to access child's state in React?

Just before I go into detail about how you can access the state of a child component, please make sure to read Markus-ipse's answer regarding a better solution to handle this particular scenario.

If you do indeed wish to access the state of a component's children, you can assign a property called ref to each child. There are now two ways to implement references: Using React.createRef() and callback refs.

Using React.createRef()

This is currently the recommended way to use references as of React 16.3 (See the docs for more info). If you're using an earlier version then see below regarding callback references.

You'll need to create a new reference in the constructor of your parent component and then assign it to a child via the ref attribute.

class FormEditor extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.FieldEditor1 = React.createRef();
  }
  render() {
    return <FieldEditor ref={this.FieldEditor1} />;
  }
}

In order to access this kind of ref, you'll need to use:

const currentFieldEditor1 = this.FieldEditor1.current;

This will return an instance of the mounted component so you can then use currentFieldEditor1.state to access the state.

Just a quick note to say that if you use these references on a DOM node instead of a component (e.g. <div ref={this.divRef} />) then this.divRef.current will return the underlying DOM element instead of a component instance.

Callback Refs

This property takes a callback function that is passed a reference to the attached component. This callback is executed immediately after the component is mounted or unmounted.

For example:

<FieldEditor
    ref={(fieldEditor1) => {this.fieldEditor1 = fieldEditor1;}
    {...props}
/>

In these examples the reference is stored on the parent component. To call this component in your code, you can use:

this.fieldEditor1

and then use this.fieldEditor1.state to get the state.

One thing to note, make sure your child component has rendered before you try to access it ^_^

As above, if you use these references on a DOM node instead of a component (e.g. <div ref={(divRef) => {this.myDiv = divRef;}} />) then this.divRef will return the underlying DOM element instead of a component instance.

Further Information

If you want to read more about React's ref property, check out this page from Facebook.

Make sure you read the "Don't Overuse Refs" section that says that you shouldn't use the child's state to "make things happen".

Hope this helps ^_^

Edit: Added React.createRef() method for creating refs. Removed ES5 code.


If you already have onChange handler for the individual FieldEditors I don't see why you couldn't just move the state up to the FormEditor component and just pass down a callback from there to the FieldEditors that will update the parent state. That seems like a more React-y way to do it, to me.

Something along the line of this perhaps:

const FieldEditor = ({ value, onChange, id }) => {
  const handleChange = event => {
    const text = event.target.value;
    onChange(id, text);
  };

  return (
    <div className="field-editor">
      <input onChange={handleChange} value={value} />
    </div>
  );
};

const FormEditor = props => {
  const [values, setValues] = useState({});
  const handleFieldChange = (fieldId, value) => {
    setValues({ ...values, [fieldId]: value });
  };

  const fields = props.fields.map(field => (
    <FieldEditor
      key={field}
      id={field}
      onChange={handleFieldChange}
      value={values[field]}
    />
  ));

  return (
    <div>
      {fields}
      <pre>{JSON.stringify(values, null, 2)}</pre>
    </div>
  );
};

// To add abillity to dynamically add/remove fields keep the list in state
const App = () => {
  const fields = ["field1", "field2", "anotherField"];

  return <FormEditor fields={fields} />;
};

Original - pre-hooks version: 

class FieldEditor extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
  }

  handleChange(event) {
    const text = event.target.value;
    this.props.onChange(this.props.id, text);
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div className="field-editor">
        <input onChange={this.handleChange} value={this.props.value} />
      </div>
    );
  }
}

class FormEditor extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {};

    this.handleFieldChange = this.handleFieldChange.bind(this);
  }

  handleFieldChange(fieldId, value) {
    this.setState({ [fieldId]: value });
  }

  render() {
    const fields = this.props.fields.map(field => (
      <FieldEditor
        key={field}
        id={field}
        onChange={this.handleFieldChange}
        value={this.state[field]}
      />
    ));

    return (
      <div>
        {fields}
        <div>{JSON.stringify(this.state)}</div>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

// Convert to class component and add ability to dynamically add/remove fields by having it in state
const App = () => {
  const fields = ["field1", "field2", "anotherField"];

  return <FormEditor fields={fields} />;
};

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);


Its 2020 and lots of you will come here looking for a similar solution but with Hooks ( They are great! ) and with latest approaches in terms of code cleanliness and syntax.

So as previous answers had stated, the best approach to this kind of problem is to hold the state outside of child component fieldEditor. You could do that in multiple ways.

The most "complex" is with global context (state) that both parent and children could access and modify. Its a great solution when components are very deep in the tree hierarchy and so its costly to send props in each level.

In this case I think its not worth it, and more simple approach will bring us the results we want, just using the powerful React.useState().

Approach with React.useState() hook, way simpler than with Class components

As said we will deal with changes and store the data of our child component fieldEditor in our parent fieldForm. To do that we will send a reference to the function that will deal and apply the changes to the fieldForm state, you could do that with:

function FieldForm({ fields }) {
  const [fieldsValues, setFieldsValues] = React.useState({});
  const handleChange = (event, fieldId) => {
    let newFields = { ...fieldsValues };
    newFields[fieldId] = event.target.value;

    setFieldsValues(newFields);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      {fields.map(field => (
        <FieldEditor
          key={field}
          id={field}
          handleChange={handleChange}
          value={fieldsValues[field]}
        />
      ))}
      <div>{JSON.stringify(fieldsValues)}</div>
    </div>
  );
}

Note that React.useState({}) will return an array with position 0 being the value specified on call (Empty object in this case), and position 1 being the reference to the function that modifies the value.

Now with the child component, FieldEditor, you don't even need to create a function with a return statement, a lean constant with an arrow function will do!

const FieldEditor = ({ id, value, handleChange }) => (
  <div className="field-editor">
    <input onChange={event => handleChange(event, id)} value={value} />
  </div>
);

Aaaaand we are done, nothing more, with just these two slime functional components we have our end goal "access" our child FieldEditor value and show it off in our parent.

You could check the accepted answer from 5 years ago and see how Hooks made React code leaner (By a lot!).

Hope my answer helps you learn and understand more about Hooks, and if you want to check a working example here it is.

Tags:

Javascript

Reactjs

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