const refContainer = useRef(initialValue);

useRef returns a mutable ref object whose .current property is initialized to the passed argument (initialValue). The returned object will persist for the full lifetime of the component.

Example: get the value of the input text

import React, {useRef} from 'react';


export default function App() {
  const inputEl = useRef(null);

  const onButtonClick = () => {
    // `current` points to the mounted text input element
    console.log(inputEl.current.value);
    inputEl.current.focus();
  };

  return (
    <>
      <input ref={inputEl} type="text" />
      <button onClick={onButtonClick}>Focus the input</button>
    </>
  );
}

You might be familiar with refs primarily as a way to access the DOM. If you pass a ref object to React with <div ref={myRef} />, React will set its .current property to the corresponding DOM node whenever that node changes.