5 Places Custom React Hooks Make Your Code Better
You add a search box to a page. A timer delays the search until the user stops typing. Then another page needs the same behavior. You copy the timer, the effect, and the cleanup. A few weeks later, someone changes the delay in one place. Another search box behaves differently. A third forgets to clear its timer. The problem isn't that the code is long. It's that the same behavior now has several…
1. useDebouncedValue: wait until input settles
The problem is that typing in a search box triggers expensive work for each character typed. Implementing a debounced value solves this by waiting for a period of quiet input before performing the work. The useDebouncedValue custom hook keeps two pieces of state - the latest input value and the debounced value that only updates after a set delay.
Whenever the input changes, the effect starts a timer to update the debounced value after the delay. If the input changes again before the delay expires, the timer is canceled and restarted for the new value. This ensures the component only reacts to the final value after any user input has settled.
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