Programmatically Navigate Using React Router

Do you want to redirect a user to another page when a certain event like a button click happens? Are you using react-router in your application for handling routing? Then in this article, we will see how to navigate programmatically using react-router.

Project setup

Create a new react project using the following command:

1npx create-react-app react-router-programmatic-routing

Now install react-router-dom and history packages:

1npm i react-router-dom history

In index.js, wrap the App component with BrowserRouter:

index.js

1import React from "react"
2import ReactDOM from "react-dom/client"
3import "./index.css"
4import App from "./App"
5
6import { BrowserRouter } from "react-router-dom"
7
8const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById("root"))
9root.render(
10  <React.StrictMode>
11    <BrowserRouter>
12      <App />
13    </BrowserRouter>
14  </React.StrictMode>
15)

In App.js create a couple of routes one for the home and another for the dashboard:

App.js

1import { Link, Route, Routes } from "react-router-dom"
2
3function App() {
4  return (
5    <div className="App">
6      <nav>
7        <ul>
8          <li>
9            <Link to="/">Home</Link>
10          </li>
11        </ul>
12      </nav>
13      <Routes>
14        <Route path="/" element={<Home />}></Route>
15        <Route path="dashboard" element={<Dashboard />}></Route>
16      </Routes>
17    </div>
18  )
19}
20
21function Home() {
22  return <button>Go to dashboard</button>
23}
24
25function Dashboard() {
26  return <div>Dashboard</div>
27}
28
29export default App

Navigating when the button is clicked

We can use the useNavigate hook from react-router to navigate to the dashboard when the button is clicked.

App.js

1import { Link, Route, Routes } from "react-router-dom"
2import { useNavigate } from "react-router-dom"
3
4function App() {
5  return (
6    <div className="App">
7      <nav>
8        <ul>
9          <li>
10            <Link to="/">Home</Link>
11          </li>
12        </ul>
13      </nav>
14      <Routes>
15        <Route path="/" element={<Home />}></Route>
16        <Route path="dashboard" element={<Dashboard />}></Route>
17      </Routes>
18    </div>
19  )
20}
21
22function Home() {
23  const navigate = useNavigate()
24
25  return (
26    <button
27      onClick={() => {
28        navigate("/dashboard")
29      }}
30    >
31      Go to dashboard
32    </button>
33  )
34}
35
36function Dashboard() {
37  return <div>Dashboard</div>
38}
39
40export default App

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Programmatically Navigate Using React Router

Table of Contents

Project setup

Navigating when the button is clicked

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