Get image preview before uploading in React

Question

Many examples of this on here but can\'t seem to find any for react. I have managed to convert the vanilla js to react but getting an error.

The answer looks simple

Answer 1

Extending on Cels' answer, and avoiding memory leaks with createObjectURL as @El Anonimo warns about, we could use useEffect to create the preview and clean up after the component unmounts like so

useEffect(() => {
   // create the preview
   const objectUrl = URL.createObjectURL(selectedFile)
   setPreview(objectUrl)

   // free memory when ever this component is unmounted
   return () => URL.revokeObjectURL(objectUrl)
}, [selectedFile])

The full code could look something like this

export const ImageUpload = () => {
    const [selectedFile, setSelectedFile] = useState()
    const [preview, setPreview] = useState()

    // create a preview as a side effect, whenever selected file is changed
    useEffect(() => {
        if (!selectedFile) {
            setPreview(undefined)
            return
        }

        const objectUrl = URL.createObjectURL(selectedFile)
        setPreview(objectUrl)

        // free memory when ever this component is unmounted
        return () => URL.revokeObjectURL(objectUrl)
    }, [selectedFile])

    const onSelectFile = e => {
        if (!e.target.files || e.target.files.length === 0) {
            setSelectedFile(undefined)
            return
        }

        // I've kept this example simple by using the first image instead of multiple
        setSelectedFile(e.target.files[0])
    }

    return (
        

            
            {selectedFile &&   }
        
    )
}