How to Create a Functional React Dropdown Menu

by Abdul Rawoof A R Updated: Jan 24, 2023

ReactJS can be used for building user interfaces, including creating a dropdown list. It lets you compose complex UIs from small and isolated pieces of code. For creating a dropdown list, you can use a third-party library such as “React-Select.” We can create a dropdown list using ReactJS by following some basic steps.

The react-select library has async option loading, dynamic search/filtering, accessibility, and rapid render times. It has a multi-select, autocompletes, and ajax-compatible Select Input control for ReactJS. For this purpose, install React and other libraries, install React-Select V2, install Bootstrap 4, and import the React-Select Module. The React-select library has two public methods:

Focus () – it focuses on the control of the program
Blur () – it blurs the control in the program

If you provide values for the properties like ‘value’,’inputValue’,’onInputChange’,’menuIsOpen’ etc., you can control them. Even if you do not React-Select will make sure nothing remains incomplete.

Here is an example of how you could create dropdown with reactjs;

Fig 1: Preview of the output that you will get on running this code from your IDE.

Code

In this solution we're using React library.

How to render a dynamic drop down in react?

JavaScriptLines of Code : 20License : CC BY-SA 4.0

export default class MyTable extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { list: [1, 2, 3, 4] };
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <select>
          {this.state.list.map((i) => {
            // <option key={i}>{i}</option>; Before
            return <option key={i}>{i}</option>; // Return value here
          })}
        </select>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Instructions

Follow the steps carefully to get the output easily.

Install the Node.js and React on your IDE(preferable Visual Studio Code).
Create React Application using npx create-react-app foldername.
cd foldername.
Open the folder in IDE.
Copy the code using "copy" button above and paste it in app.js file(remove the earlier code from app.js).
Import library.
Open the terminal from IDE.
npm start to run the file.

I hope you found this useful. I have added the link to dependent libraries, version information in the following sections.

I found this code snippet by searching for 'Create dropdown in React' in kandi. You can try any such use case!

Environment Tested

I tested this solution in the following versions. Be mindful of changes when working with other versions.

The solution is created in Visual Studio Code 1.73.1.
The solution is tested on node v18.12.1 and npm v8.19.2.
React version-18.2.0.

Using this solution, we are able to create an drop down list in React with simple steps. This process also facilities an easy way to use, hassle-free method to create a hands-on working version of code which would help us to create an drop down lists in React.