DEV Community

Hakki
Hakki

Posted on

A Guide to Building Custom Hooks in React

Writing custom React hooks allows you to encapsulate and reuse logic across your React components. Here's a general guide to creating your own custom React hook:

  1. Naming Convention: Custom hooks should start with use, like useCustomHook.

  2. Create the Hook Function:

    • Begin by declaring a function that starts with use, for example, function useCustomHook() {}.
    • This function is essentially a regular JavaScript function.
  3. Add State and Effects:

    • Inside your hook, you can use other hooks like useState, useEffect, useContext, etc.
    • For example, const [state, setState] = useState(initialState);
  4. Implement Custom Logic:

    • This is where you implement the logic that your custom hook is supposed to encapsulate.
    • You can manage state, side effects, or any other logic that should be abstracted away.
  5. Return What's Necessary:

    • Custom hooks can return anything – a single value, an array of values, or an object.
    • For example, return [state, setState]; or return { state, updateState: setState };
  6. Using Your Custom Hook:

    • In your functional components, you can now use this hook like any other hook.
    • For example, const [myState, setMyState] = useCustomHook();
  7. Keep in Mind:

    • Rules of Hooks apply to custom hooks as well. They should not be called conditionally or from regular JavaScript functions.
  8. Example:
    Let's say you want a hook to track the window size:

   import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

   function useWindowSize() {
     const [size, setSize] = useState([window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight]);

     useEffect(() => {
       const handleResize = () => {
         setSize([window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight]);
       };

       window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
       return () => window.removeEventListener('resize', handleResize);
     }, []);

     return size;
   }
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

In this example, useWindowSize is a custom hook that encapsulates the logic for listening to the window's resize event and provides the current size of the window. Remember, the beauty of custom hooks is in their reusability and the encapsulation of complex logic, making your main components cleaner and more readable.

SurveyJS custom survey software

Simplify data collection in your JS app with a fully integrated form management platform. Includes support for custom question types, skip logic, integrated CCS editor, PDF export, real-time analytics & more. Integrates with any backend system, giving you full control over your data and no user limits.

Learn more

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
scriptkavi profile image
ScriptKavi

Why create one when you can get all awesome hooks in a single library?

Try scriptkavi/hooks. Copy paste style and easy to integrate with its own CLI

Billboard image

The Next Generation Developer Platform

Coherence is the first Platform-as-a-Service you can control. Unlike "black-box" platforms that are opinionated about the infra you can deploy, Coherence is powered by CNC, the open-source IaC framework, which offers limitless customization.

Learn more

👋 Kindness is contagious

Discover a treasure trove of wisdom within this insightful piece, highly respected in the nurturing DEV Community enviroment. Developers, whether novice or expert, are encouraged to participate and add to our shared knowledge basin.

A simple "thank you" can illuminate someone's day. Express your appreciation in the comments section!

On DEV, sharing ideas smoothens our journey and strengthens our community ties. Learn something useful? Offering a quick thanks to the author is deeply appreciated.

Okay