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useWatch

React Hook for subscribe to input changes

useWatch: ({ control?: Control, name?: string, defaultValue?: any }) => object

Behaves similarly to the watch API, however, this will isolate re-rendering at the component level and potentially result in better performance for your application.

Props

NameTypeDescription
namestring | string[]Name of the field.
controlObjectcontrol object is from invoking useForm. it's optional if you are using FormContext.
defaultValueanydefault value for useWatch to return before the initial render.
import React from "react";
import { useForm, useWatch } from "react-hook-form";

function IsolateReRender({ control }) {
  const firstName = useWatch({
    control,
    name: 'firstName', // without supply name will watch the entire form, or ['firstName', 'lastName'] to watch both
    defaultValue: 'default' // default value before the render
  });

  return <div>{firstName}</div>; // only re-render at the component level, when firstName changes
}

function App() {
  const { register, control, handleSubmit } = useForm();
  
  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(data => console.log("data", data))}>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <input {...register("last")} />
      <IsolateReRender control={control} />
      
      <input type="submit" />
    </form>
  );
}
import React from "react";
import { useForm, useWatch } from "react-hook-form";

interface FormInputs {
  firstName: string
}

function FirstNameWatched({ control }: { control: Control<FormInputs> }) {
  const firstName = useWatch({
    control,
    name: "firstName", // without supply name will watch the entire form, or ['firstName', 'lastName'] to watch both
    defaultValue: "default" // default value before the render
  });

  return <p>Watch: {firstName}</p>; // only re-render at the component level, when firstName changes
}

function App() {
  const { register, control, handleSubmit } = useForm<FormInputs>();

  const onSubmit = (data: FormInputs) => {
    console.log(data)
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <label>First Name:</label>
      <input {...register("firstName")} />
      <input type="submit" />
      <FirstNameWatched control={control} />
    </form>
  );
}
import React from "react";
import { useWatch } from "react-hook-form";

function totalCal(results) {
  let totalValue = 0;

  for (const key in results) {
    for (const value in results[key]) {
      if (typeof results[key][value] === "string") {
        const output = parseInt(results[key][value], 10);
        totalValue = totalValue + (Number.isNaN(output) ? 0 : output);
      } else {
        totalValue = totalValue + totalCal(results[key][value], totalValue);
      }
    }
  }

  return totalValue;
}

export const Calc = ({ control, setValue }) => {
  const results = useWatch({ control, name: "test" });
  const output = totalCal(results);

  // isolated re-render to calc the result with Field Array
  console.log(results);

  setValue("total", output);

  return <p>{output}</p>;
};

Tips

  • The initial return value from useWatch will always return what's inside of defaultValue or defaultValues from useForm.

  • The only different between useWatch and watch is at root level or component level update.
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