Handling multiple elements with useRef

Sometimes you need to have a ref to multiple (often dynamic) elements in your component. JS APIs like querySelectorAll are often a bit brittle in a React world, so this is where you reach for the below pattern.

Note that React recommends using a [[20250519113339-js-map]] here to store references, I'm not sure why that's preferred to an array.

import { useRef, useState } from "react";

export default function CatFriends() {
  const itemsRef = useRef(null);
  const [catList, setCatList] = useState(setupCatList);

  function scrollToCat(cat) {
    const map = getMap();
    const node = map.get(cat);
    node.scrollIntoView({
      behavior: "smooth",
      block: "nearest",
      inline: "center",
    });
  }

  function getMap() {
    if (!itemsRef.current) {
      // Initialize the Map on first usage.
      itemsRef.current = new Map();
    }
    return itemsRef.current;
  }

  return (
    <>
      <nav>
        <button onClick={() => scrollToCat(catList[0])}>Neo</button>
        <button onClick={() => scrollToCat(catList[5])}>Millie</button>
        <button onClick={() => scrollToCat(catList[9])}>Bella</button>
      </nav>
      <div>
        <ul>
          {catList.map((cat) => (
            <li
              key={cat}
              ref={(node) => {
                const map = getMap();
                map.set(cat, node);

                return () => {
                  map.delete(cat);
                };
              }}
            >
              <img src={cat} />
            </li>
          ))}
        </ul>
      </div>
    </>
  );
}

function setupCatList() {
  const catList = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    catList.push("https://loremflickr.com/320/240/cat?lock=" + i);
  }

  return catList;
}

https://react.dev/learn/manipulating-the-dom-with-refs

[[react]] [[[reacthooks]]]