React useCopyToClipboard Hook: Explanation & Usage

Managing interactions with the clipboard is a common requirement in web applications. In React, we can achieve this functionality using custom hooks.

In this blog post, we will explore the implementation and usage of the useCopyToClipboard hook in a React application.

Approach for useCopyToClipboard Hook

The useCopyToClipboard hook is a custom React hook that simplifies copying text to the clipboard. This hook abstracts the process of working with the Clipboard API and provides an easy-to-use interface for copying text with just a function call.

Implementation of the useCopyToClipboard Hook

Below is an example implementation of the useCopyToClipboard hook:

const useCopyToClipboard = () => {
    const copyToClipboard = (text) => {
        navigator.clipboard.writeText(text)
            .then(() => {
                console.log('Text copied to clipboard');
            })
            .catch((error) => {
                console.error('Error copying text to clipboard: ', error);
            });
    };

    return { copyToClipboard };
};

export default useCopyToClipboard;

Code Explanation 

In the above code snippet, we define a custom hook useCopyToClipboard that contains a copyToClipboard function. This function takes the text to be copied as an argument and uses the Clipboard API to write the text to the clipboard.

Usage of useCopyToClipboard Hook

Once we have the useCopyToClipboard hook implemented, we can use it in our React components to enable text copying functionality. Here's an example of how to use the hook in a component:

import React from 'react';
import useCopyToClipboard from './useCopyToClipboard';

const CopyToClipboardComponent = () => {
    const { copyToClipboard } = useCopyToClipboard();

    const handleCopy = () => {
        copyToClipboard('Text to copy');
    };

    return (
        <div>
            <button onClick={handleCopy}>Copy Text</button>
        </div>
    );
};

export default CopyToClipboardComponent;

In the above code snippet, we import the useCopyToClipboard hook and use it in a component named CopyToClipboardComponent. When the button is clicked, the handleCopy function is called, which in turn calls the copyToClipboard function with the text 'Text to copy'.

Conclusion

Using the useCopyToClipboard hook in React applications simplifies the process of copying text to the clipboard. This is one of the most commonly asked custom hook implementations in frontend interviews to check how you can use the existing APIs to abstract the logic using custom hooks. 

Further Reading 🚀

1. 20 Most Asked Custom Hooks in React for Interviews.