Installation

Installing React Hook Form only takes a single command and you're ready to roll.

npm install react-hook-form

Example

The following code excerpt demonstrates a basic usage example:

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit, watch, formState: { errors } } = useForm();
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);

  console.log(watch("example")); // watch input value by passing the name of it

  return (
    /* "handleSubmit" will validate your inputs before invoking "onSubmit" */
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      {/* register your input into the hook by invoking the "register" function */}
      <input defaultValue="test" {...register("example")} />
      
      {/* include validation with required or other standard HTML validation rules */}
      <input {...register("exampleRequired", { required: true })} />
      {/* errors will return when field validation fails  */}
      {errors.exampleRequired && <span>This field is required</span>}
      
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}import React from "react";
import { useForm, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";

type Inputs = {
  example: string,
  exampleRequired: string,
};

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit, watch, formState: { errors } } = useForm<Inputs>();
  const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<Inputs> = data => console.log(data);

  console.log(watch("example")) // watch input value by passing the name of it

  return (
    /* "handleSubmit" will validate your inputs before invoking "onSubmit" */
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      {/* register your input into the hook by invoking the "register" function */}
      <input defaultValue="test" {...register("example")} />
      
      {/* include validation with required or other standard HTML validation rules */}
      <input {...register("exampleRequired", { required: true })} />
      {/* errors will return when field validation fails  */}
      {errors.exampleRequired && <span>This field is required</span>}
      
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

♦

React Web Video Tutorial

This video tutorial illustrates the basic usage and concepts of React Hook Form.

Register fields

One of the key concepts in React Hook Form is to register your uncontrolled component into the hook. This will make its value available for both the form validation and submission.

Note: Each field is required to have a unique name as a key for the registration process.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm();
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);
   
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <select {...register("gender")}>
        <option value="female">female</option>
        <option value="male">male</option>
        <option value="other">other</option>
      </select>
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}import React from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
import { useForm, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";

enum GenderEnum {
  female = "female",
  male = "male",
  other = "other"
}

interface IFormInput {
  firstName: String;
  gender: GenderEnum;
}

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm<IFormInput>();
  const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<IFormInput> = data => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <label>First Name</label>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <label>Gender Selection</label>
      <select {...register("gender")} >
        <option value="female">female</option>
        <option value="male">male</option>
        <option value="other">other</option>
      </select>
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

Apply validation

React Hook Form makes form validation easy by aligning with the existing HTML standard for form validation.

List of validation rules supported:

required
min
max
minLength
maxLength
pattern
validate

You can read more detail on each rule in the register section.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm();
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);
   
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName", { required: true, maxLength: 20 })} />
      <input {...register("lastName", { pattern: /^[A-Za-z]+$/i })} />
      <input type="number" {...register("age", { min: 18, max: 99 })} />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}import React from "react";
import { useForm, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";

interface IFormInput {
  firstName: string;
  lastName: string;
  age: number;
}

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm<IFormInput>();
  const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<IFormInput> = data => console.log(data);
   
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName", { required: true, maxLength: 20 })} />
      <input {...register("lastName", { pattern: /^[A-Za-z]+$/i })} />
      <input type="number" {...register("age", { min: 18, max: 99 })} />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

Integrating an existing form

Integrating an existing form is simple. The important step is to apply register into the component's ref.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";

// The following component is an example of your existing Input Component
const Input = ({ label, register, required }) => (
  <>
    <label>{label}</label>
    <input {...register(label, { required })} />
  </>
);

// you can use React.forwardRef to pass the ref too
const Select = React.forwardRef(({ onChange, onBlur, name, label }, ref) => (
  <>
    <label>{label}</label>
    <select name={name} ref={ref} onChange={onChange} onBlur={onBlur}>
      <option value="20">20</option>
      <option value="30">30</option>
    </select>
  </>
));

const App = () => {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm();

  const onSubmit = (data) => {
    alert(JSON.stringify(data));
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Input label="First Name" register={register} required />
      <Select label="Age" {...register("Age")} />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
};
import React from "react";
import { Path, useForm, UseFormRegister, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";

interface IFormValues {
  "First Name": string;
  Age: number;
}

type InputProps = {
  label: Path<IFormValues>;
  register: UseFormRegister<IFormValues>;
  required: boolean;
};

// The following component is an example of your existing Input Component
const Input = ({ label, register, required }: InputProps) => (
  <>
    <label>{label}</label>
    <input {...register(label, { required })} />
  </>
);

// you can use React.forwardRef to pass the ref too
const Select = React.forwardRef<
  HTMLSelectElement,
  { label: string } & ReturnType<UseFormRegister<IFormValues>>
>(({ onChange, onBlur, name, label }, ref) => (
  <>
    <label>{label}</label>
    <select name={name} ref={ref} onChange={onChange} onBlur={onBlur}>
      <option value="20">20</option>
      <option value="30">30</option>
    </select>
  </>
));

const App = () => {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm<IFormValues>();

  const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<IFormValues> = data => {
    alert(JSON.stringify(data));
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Input label="First Name" register={register} required />
      <Select label="Age" {...register("Age")} />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
};

Integrating with UI libraries

React Hook Form has made it easy to integrate with external UI component libraries. If the component doesn't expose input's ref, then you should use the Controller component, which will take care of the registration process.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import Select from "react-select";
import { useForm, Controller } from "react-hook-form";
import Input from "@material-ui/core/Input";

const App = () => {
  const { control, handleSubmit } = useForm();
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Controller
        name="firstName"
        control={control}
        defaultValue=""
        render={({ field }) => <Input {...field} />}
      />
      <Controller
        name="iceCreamType"
        control={control}
        render={({ field }) => <Select 
          {...field} 
          options={[
            { value: "chocolate", label: "Chocolate" },
            { value: "strawberry", label: "Strawberry" },
            { value: "vanilla", label: "Vanilla" }
          ]} 
        />}
      />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
};
import React from "react";
import Select from "react-select";
import { useForm, Controller, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";
import Input from "@material-ui/core/Input";

interface IFormInput {
  firstName: string;
  lastName: string;
  iceCreamType: {label: string; value: string };
}

const App = () => {
  const { control, handleSubmit } = useForm<IFormInput>();

  const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<IFormInput> = data => {
    console.log(data)
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Controller
        name="firstName"
        control={control}
        defaultValue=""
        render={({ field }) => <Input {...field} />}
      />
      <Controller
        name="iceCreamType"
        control={control}
        render={({ field }) => <Select 
          {...field} 
          options={[
            { value: "chocolate", label: "Chocolate" },
            { value: "strawberry", label: "Strawberry" },
            { value: "vanilla", label: "Vanilla" }
          ]} 
        />}
      />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
};

Integrating Controlled Inputs

React Hook Form embraces uncontrolled components and native HTML inputs, however, it's hard to avoid working with external controlled components such as React-Select, AntD and Material-UI. To make this simple, we provide a wrapper component: Controller to streamline the integration process while still giving you the freedom to use a custom register.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import { useForm, Controller } from "react-hook-form";
import { TextField, Checkbox } from "@material-ui/core";

function App() {
  const { handleSubmit, control, reset } = useForm();
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Controller
        name="MyCheckbox"
        control={control}
        defaultValue={false}
        rules={{ required: true }}
        render={({ field }) => <Checkbox {...field} />}
      />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}
import React from "react";
import { useForm, Controller, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";
import { TextField, Checkbox } from "@material-ui/core";

interface IFormInputs {
  TextField: string
  MyCheckbox: boolean
}

function App() {
  const { handleSubmit, control, reset } = useForm<IFormInputs>();
  const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<IFormInputs> = data => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Controller
        name="MyCheckbox"
        control={control}
        defaultValue={false}
        rules={{ required: true }}
        render={({ field }) => <Checkbox {...field} />}
      />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

Integrating with global state

React Hook Form doesn't require you to rely on a state management library such as Redux to store your data, but you can easily integrate with it:

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";
import { connect } from "react-redux";
import updateAction from "./actions";

export default function App(props) {
  const { register, handleSubmit, setValue } = useForm();
  // Submit your data into Redux store
  const onSubmit = data => props.updateAction(data);
  
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <Input {...register("firstName")} defaultValue={props.firstName} />
      <Input {...register("lastName")} defaultValue={props.lastName} />
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

// Connect your component with redux
connect(({ firstName, lastName }) => ({ firstName, lastName }), updateAction)(YourForm);

Handle errors

React Hook Form provides an errors object to show you the errors in the form. errors's type will return given validation constraints. The following example showcases a required validation rule.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";

export default function App() {
  const { register, formState: { errors }, handleSubmit } = useForm();
  
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName", { required: true })} />
      {errors.firstName?.type === 'required' && "First name is required"}
      
      <input {...register("lastName", { required: true })} />
      {errors.lastName && "Last name is required"}
      
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}
import React from "react";
import { useForm, SubmitHandler } from "react-hook-form";

interface IFormInputs {
  firstName: string
  lastName: string
}

const onSubmit: SubmitHandler<IFormInputs> = data => console.log(data);

export default function App() {
  const { register, formState: { errors }, handleSubmit } = useForm<IFormInputs>();
  
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName", { required: true })} />
      {errors.firstName && "First name is required"}
      <input {...register("lastName", { required: true })} />
      {errors.lastName && "Last name is required"}
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

Schema Validation

React Hook Form supports schema-based form validation with Yup, Zod , Superstruct & Joi, where you can pass your schema to useForm as an optional config. React Hook Form will validate your input data against the schema and return with either errors or a valid result.

Step 1: Install Yup into your project.

npm install @hookform/resolvers yup

Step 2: Prepare your schema for validation and register inputs with React Hook Form.

CodeSandbox

import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";
import { yupResolver } from '@hookform/resolvers/yup';
import * as yup from "yup";

const schema = yup.object().shape({
  firstName: yup.string().required(),
  age: yup.number().positive().integer().required(),
});

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState:{ errors } } = useForm({
    resolver: yupResolver(schema)
  });
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <p>{errors.firstName?.message}</p>
        
      <input {...register("age")} />
      <p>{errors.age?.message}</p>
      
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}
import React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";
import { yupResolver } from '@hookform/resolvers/yup';
import * as yup from "yup";

interface IFormInputs {
  firstName: string
  age: number
}

const schema = yup.object().shape({
  firstName: yup.string().required(),
  age: yup.number().positive().integer().required(),
});

export default function App() {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm<IFormInputs>({
    resolver: yupResolver(schema)
  });
  const onSubmit = (data: IFormInputs) => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <p>{errors.firstName?.message}</p>
        
      <input {...register("age")} />
      <p>{errors.age?.message}</p>
      
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}

React Native

You will get the same performance enhancement from an Uncontrolled Component. You can use Controller or custom register as shown in the following example.

Expo

import React from "react";
import { Text, View, TextInput, Button, Alert } from "react-native";
import { useForm, Controller } from "react-hook-form";

export default function App() {
  const { control, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm();
  const onSubmit = data => console.log(data);

  return (
    <View>
      <Controller
        control={control}
        rules={{
         required: true,
        }}
        render={({ field: { onChange, onBlur, value } }) => (
          <TextInput
            style={styles.input}
            onBlur={onBlur}
            onChangeText={onChange}
            value={value}
          />
        )}
        name="firstName"
        defaultValue=""
      />
      {errors.firstName && <Text>This is required.</Text>}

      <Controller
        control={control}
        rules={{
         maxLength: 100,
        }}
        render={({ field: { onChange, onBlur, value } }) => (
          <TextInput
            style={styles.input}
            onBlur={onBlur}
            onChangeText={onChange}
            value={value}
          />
        )}
        name="lastName"
        defaultValue=""
      />

      <Button title="Submit" onPress={handleSubmit(onSubmit)} />
    </View>
  );
}

TypeScript

React Hook Form is built with TypeScript, so you can define a FormData type to support form values.

CodeSandbox

import * as React from "react";
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";

type FormData = {
  firstName: string;
  lastName: string;
};

export default function App() {
  const { register, setValue, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm<FormData>();
  const onSubmit = handleSubmit(data => console.log(data));
  // firstName and lastName will have correct type

  return (
    <form onSubmit={onSubmit}>
      <label>First Name</label>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <label>Last Name</label>
      <input {...register("lastName")} />
      <button
        type="button"
        onClick={() => {
          setValue("lastName", "luo"); // ✅
          setValue("firstName", true); // ❌: true is not string
          errors.bill; // ❌: property bill does not exist
        }}
      >
        SetValue
      </button>
    </form>
  );
}

Want to learn more?

Check out the React Hook Form documentation and learn all about the API.

Get Started

Installation

Example

React Web Video Tutorial

Register fields

Apply validation

Integrating an existing form

Integrating with UI libraries

Integrating Controlled Inputs

Integrating with global state

Handle errors

Schema Validation

React Native

TypeScript

Want to learn more?