About Me: I've been a professional web developer for just over 10 years now. I'm currently the lead web development instructor at Better Coding Academy, and as part of what I do, I post videos on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/BetterCodingAcademy.

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Ever wondered how the useRef hook works?

This issue is one that my students ask about a lot; however, once understood correctly it can quite easily become one of the most powerful tools inside a React developer's toolbelt.

In the following video, I answer questions such as the following,

1. How does the useRef hook work?
2. Why does it become an object with a current property?
3. Why is it sometimes used for referencing DOM elements, and sometimes used for random data?

And I also cover an example of how to use the useRef hook in a real component. I hope you enjoy!

Happy coding!