Handling Enter key events in the React-Bootstrap input component

To handle the “Enter” key press on a React-Bootstrap input component, we typically need to listen for the onKeyDown or onKeyPress event. onKeyDown and onKeyPress are both event handlers in JavaScript that are triggered when a key is pressed, but they have some key differences:

  • onKeyDown: It is triggered when a key is pressed down, regardless of whether it produces a character. It captures all keys, including non-character keys like “Shift” or the arrow keys.

  • onKeyPress: It is triggered specifically when a key that produces a character is pressed down. It does not capture non-character keys. Additionally, it is not triggered for keys that don’t produce a character, like “Shift” or the arrow keys.

When the “Enter” key is pressed, we can prevent the default behavior (such as form submission) and perform custom logic. We will be using onKeyDown for our discussion forward.

The onKeyDown function

The onKeyDown event is triggered when a key is pressed down. In the context of a React-Bootstrap input component, we can use this event to capture the “Enter” key press and perform specific actions. The event object (e) contains information about the key that was pressed. We can use it as follows: 

<input
    onKeyDown={(e) => {
        if (e.key === "Enter")
            handlerFuntion();
        }}
/>

Example code

Now, let’s take a look at the provided code example and explain how it implements the “Enter” key event handler:

Code explanation

Let’s breakdown the above code in simple words:

  • Lines 2–3: We import React and the useState hook from React, as well as the Form and Button components from react-bootstrap.

  • Line 6: We initialize the state using the useState hook.

    • inputValue is the state variable that holds the current value of the input field.

    • setInputValue is the function to update the inputValue state.

  • Lines 8–10: We define a function to handle input change events.

    • handleInputChange is a function that updates the inputValue state with the current value of the input field whenever it changes.

  • Lines 12–15: We define a function to handle the form submission.

    • handleFormSubmission is a function that logs the form submission to the console and provides the input value. You can customize this function with your logic for handling form submissions.

  • Lines 18–39: We render the form using React-Bootstrap components.

    • Form is a container component for the form.

    • Form.Group is used to group related form controls.

    • Form.Label is a label for the input.

    • Form.Control is the input component.

    • onChange is set to the handleInputChange function to track changes in the input field.

    • onKeyDown is set to an inline arrow function that checks if the pressed key is “Enter,” prevents the default behavior, and calls handleFormSubmission.

    • Button is a submit button for the form with an onClick event that triggers handleFormSubmission.

This component provides a simple form with an input field and a submit button. The “Enter” key in the input field triggers the form submission logic.

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