submit form when user click enter key in react

How to Submit Form When User Click Enter Key in React

When building a form in React, it is important to ensure that it is user-friendly and easy to interact with. One way to achieve this is to allow users to submit the form by simply pressing the "Enter" key on their keyboard. In this post, we will discuss how to achieve this using React.

Method 1: Using onSubmit Event Handler

The onSubmit event handler can be used to submit a form when the user presses the "Enter" key. First, we need to create a function that handles the form submission. This function will be called when the user submits the form using the "Enter" key.

function handleSubmit(event) {
  event.preventDefault(); // prevent default form submission behavior
  // submit form logic goes here
}

// in the render method
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
  // form fields go here
</form>

In the code above, we have created a function called handleSubmit that prevents the default form submission behavior by calling the preventDefault method on the event object. This ensures that our custom form submission logic executes when the user presses the "Enter" key.

Method 2: Using refs and onKeyDown Event Handler

The refs feature in React can also be used to submit a form when the user presses "Enter". First, we need to create a ref for our form element. This ref will be used to access the form element in our onKeyDown event handler.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.myForm = React.createRef();
  }

  handleKeyDown = (event) => {
    if (event.key === 'Enter') {
      event.preventDefault(); // prevent default form submission behavior
      this.myForm.current.submit(); // submit form
    }
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <form ref={this.myForm} onKeyDown={this.handleKeyDown}>
        // form fields go here
      </form>
    );
  }
}

In the code above, we have created a class component called MyForm that has a constructor method where we create a ref for our form element. We have also created a handleKeyDown event handler that checks if the key pressed is "Enter" and submits the form using the ref.

Conclusion

Submitting a form when the user clicks "Enter" is a simple and effective way to improve the user experience of your React application. The onSubmit event handler and refs are two methods that can be used to achieve this.