How to set focus to a Material UI TextField?

Question

How can I set the focus on a Material UI TextField component?

componentDidMount() {
  ReactDom.findDomNode(this.refs.myControl).focus()
}

I have tried the above code, but it does not work.

Answer 1

For React 16.8.6, you should use the inputRef property of TextField to set focus.

<TextField
  inputRef={input => input && input.focus()}
/>

Material UI doc says:

inputRef: Use this property to pass a ref callback to the native input component.

The ref prop wouldn't work. It gives a reference to the root DOM element of the TextField which is the parent of the <input> element.

Answer 2

You can use the autoFocus prop:

<TextField value="some value" autoFocus />

It sets the autofocus attribute on the <input> element.

Answer 3

autoFocus was also not working for me, perhaps since this is a component that's not mounted when the top-level component loads. I had to do something a lot more convoluted to get it to work:

function AutoFocusTextField(props) {
  const inputRef = React.useRef();

  React.useEffect(() => {
    const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
      inputRef.current.focus();
    }, 100);

    return () => {
      clearTimeout(timeout);
    };
  }, []);

  return <TextField inputRef={inputRef} {...props} />;
}

Note that for some reason it does not work without the setTimeout. For more info see https://github.com/callemall/material-ui/issues/1594.

Answer 4

If you are using material-ui TextField and react functional component, you can pass inputRef in your TextField component. The trick here is the if condition if(input != null).

<TextField
    variant="filled"
    inputRef={(input) => {
      if(input != null) {
         input.focus();
      }
    }}
/>

Here is an working example for you. CodeSandBox- Material-ui-TextFieldFocus

Answer 5

This will focus the component every time it renders. Other solutions I tried only focus the element an initial time.

  const inputRef = React.useRef<HTMLInputElement>();
  
  useEffect(() => {
    inputRef.current?.focus();
  }, [inputRef.current]);

  const setTextInputRef = (element: HTMLInputElement) => {
    inputRef.current = element;
  };
   
  return (
    <TextField
      inputRef={setTextInputRef}
    />

Answer 6

add this propery to your TextField component :

inputRef={(input) => input?.focus()}

Answer 7

 const handleClick =  () => {
   inputRef.current.firstChild.focus();
   inputRef.current.firstChild.placeholder = '';
  }
  <InputBase
        value={value}
        ref={inputRef}
        placeholder="search" />
    <Button onClick={handleClick}>Click</Button>

Answer 8

useRef hook simple example:

const focusMe_Ref = useRef(null); // 1. create

useEffect(() => {
  focusMe_Ref.current.focus();  // 2. startup
}, []);


...

<TextField
   inputRef={focusMe_Ref} // 3. will focused
  ...
/>

Answer 9

This code is actually good, but has a drawback, on every render it's going to create a new function. It easily can be solved using useCallback

<TextField
  inputRef={input => input && input.focus()}
/>

Should be

const callbackRef = useCallback((inputElement) => {
     if (inputElement) {
         inputElement.focus();
     }
 }, []);
...
<TextField
  inputRef={callbackRef}
/>

Answer 10

I am using this solution, works for text fields inspired by https://gist.github.com/carpben/de968e377cbac0ffbdefe1ab56237573

const useFocus = (): [any, () => void] => {
    const htmlElRef: MutableRefObject<any> = useRef<HTMLDivElement>();
    const setFocus = (): void => {
        if (!htmlElRef || !htmlElRef.current) return
        const div = htmlElRef.current as HTMLDivElement
        if (!div) return
        const input = div.querySelector("input")
        if (input) input.focus()
    }
    return [htmlElRef, setFocus];
};


export function MyComp() {
  const [ref, setFocus] = useFocus()
  
  // use setFocus() to focus the input field

  return <Input ref={ref} />
}

Answer 11

I had a similar problem where the input field didn't regain focus after I've modified its contents with external controls (an emoji picker). I ended up with this brute workaround hook:

const useEnforceFocusTextField = (textFieldRef: React.RefObject<HTMLInputElement>) => {
  const [enforcedRerender, setEnforcedRerender] = useState(false);
  React.useEffect(() => {
    textFieldRef.current?.focus();
    const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
      textFieldRef.current?.focus();
    }, 100);
    return () => clearTimeout(timeout);
  }, [enforcedRerender]);
  return () => setEnforcedRerender((n) => !n);
};

From the outside, you call utilize this hook in the following manner:

const textFieldRef = useRef<HTMLInputElement>(null);
...
// enforceFocus() can be called in any callback to set the focus to the textfield
const enforceFocus = useEnforceFocusTextField(textFieldRef);
...
return <TextField inputRef={textFieldRef} ... />

Answer 12

For TypeScript version in MUI 5 I had to use inner elements of TextField such a way

    const inputRef = useRef(null);
    ...
    useEffect(() => {
      const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
        if (inputRef && inputRef.current) {
          (((inputRef.current as unknown as HTMLElement)?.firstChild as HTMLElement)?.firstChild as HTMLElement)?.focus();      
        }
      }, 100);
      return () => {
        clearTimeout(timeout);
      };
    }, [open]);
    ...
    <TextField ref={inputRef}/>

Answer 13

For a material ui TextField you need to input the props for autoFocus in a inputProps object like this.

 <TextField inputProps={{ autoFocus: true }} />

Answer 14

AlienKevin is correct ( pass a ref callback to "TextField.inputProps" ), but you can also save the element reference on your "this" object, so that you can set focus later. Here is an example in Coffeescript:

TextField
    inputProps:
        ref: (el)=>
            if el?
                @input_element = el

Button
    onClick:=> 
        @input_element.focus()