Forwarding refs allows components to pass DOM references through to their children, enabling parent components to directly access nested elements. With over 11 years of experience in software development and as the creator of CoreUI, I’ve used ref forwarding extensively in component libraries and reusable UI elements. From my expertise, the most reliable approach is using React.forwardRef() to wrap components that need to expose their inner DOM elements. This pattern is essential for building accessible, reusable components that work seamlessly with parent component logic.

Using refs to access DOM elements enables direct manipulation when React’s declarative paradigm isn’t sufficient for specific use cases. As the creator of CoreUI with over 11 years of React development experience, I’ve used refs extensively for integrating third-party libraries, managing focus, and implementing complex interactions. From my expertise, the most effective approach is using the useRef hook to create persistent references that survive component re-renders. This technique provides imperative access to DOM elements while maintaining React’s component lifecycle.