React hook form with react-select as required field

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05-10-2024

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Making React-Select Required with React Hook Form: A Simple Guide

Problem: You're using React Hook Form for efficient form management and React-Select for user-friendly dropdown selections. However, you need to ensure that the React-Select field is mandatory, but the default behavior doesn't enforce this.

Solution: This article will guide you through making your React-Select field required within your React Hook Form setup.

Scenario:

Let's imagine you're building a form for a user profile. You have a field for selecting a country using React-Select. This field should be mandatory.

import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import Select from 'react-select';

const UserProfileForm = () => {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm();

  const onSubmit = (data) => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <div>
        <label htmlFor="country">Country:</label>
        <Select 
          {...register('country')}
          options={countryOptions}
          placeholder="Select Country"
        />
        {errors.country && <span>This field is required</span>}
      </div>
      <button type="submit">Submit</button>
    </form>
  );
};

const countryOptions = [
  { value: 'US', label: 'United States' },
  { value: 'CA', label: 'Canada' },
  { value: 'UK', label: 'United Kingdom' },
];

export default UserProfileForm;

Analysis:

The above code doesn't enforce the React-Select field as mandatory. If the user leaves it empty, the errors.country object won't contain any validation errors.

Solution:

To make the React-Select field required, we need to leverage React Hook Form's validation capabilities:

import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import Select from 'react-select';

const UserProfileForm = () => {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm({
    defaultValues: { country: null }, // Set default value to null 
  });

  const onSubmit = (data) => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
      <div>
        <label htmlFor="country">Country:</label>
        <Select 
          {...register('country', { required: true })} // Add required validation
          options={countryOptions}
          placeholder="Select Country"
        />
        {errors.country && <span>This field is required</span>}
      </div>
      <button type="submit">Submit</button>
    </form>
  );
};

const countryOptions = [
  { value: 'US', label: 'United States' },
  { value: 'CA', label: 'Canada' },
  { value: 'UK', label: 'United Kingdom' },
];

export default UserProfileForm;

Explanation:

1. defaultValues: Setting the default value of the country field to null is important because React-Select's initial state is an empty object, not null. This allows the required validation to work properly.

2. required: true: We add this validation rule to the register function, ensuring that the country field is considered mandatory.

3. errors.country: The errors object now contains validation errors if the user doesn't select a country. We display a simple error message if errors.country is true.

Additional Insights:

• You can customize the error message displayed by setting errors.country.message to a more descriptive string.

• If you need to implement other validation rules besides required, you can add them as additional validation properties within the register function. For example:

  {...register('country', {
    required: true,
    validate: (value) => value !== 'CA' || 'Canada is not allowed',
  })}
  

• Consider using React Hook Form's setValue method to programmatically update the selected value of the React-Select field, if required.

Conclusion:

By combining React Hook Form's validation capabilities with a clear understanding of React-Select's initial state, you can easily make your React-Select fields mandatory in your forms. This ensures a smoother user experience and reliable data validation.

References:

• React Hook Form Documentation
• React-Select Documentation