---
title: React useClickOutside hook
type: snippet
tags: [hooks,effect,event]
author: chalarangelo
cover: clutter
dateModified: 2020-11-16T14:17:53+02:00
---

Handles the event of clicking outside of the wrapped component.

- Create a custom hook that takes a `ref` and a `callback` to handle the `click` event.
- Use the `useEffect()` hook to append and clean up the `click` event.
- Use the `useRef()` hook to create a `ref` for your click component and pass it to the `useClickOutside` hook.

```jsx
const useClickOutside = (ref, callback) => {
  const handleClick = e => {
    if (ref.current && !ref.current.contains(e.target)) {
      callback();
    }
  };
  React.useEffect(() => {
    document.addEventListener('click', handleClick);
    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener('click', handleClick);
    };
  });
};
```

```jsx
const ClickBox = ({ onClickOutside }) => {
  const clickRef = React.useRef();
  useClickOutside(clickRef, onClickOutside);
  return (
    <div
      className="click-box"
      ref={clickRef}
      style={{
        border: '2px dashed orangered',
        height: 200,
        width: 400,
        display: 'flex',
        justifyContent: 'center',
        alignItems: 'center'
      }}
    >
      <p>Click out of this element</p>
    </div>
  );
};

ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
  <ClickBox onClickOutside={() => alert('click outside')} />
);
```