Easy and agnostic react hook to handle keys and key-combinations on your keyboard.

npm install use-wasd

This hook returns an object with the keys and combos and their pressed state.

import useWASD from "use-wasd";

export default function App() {
  const keyboard = useWASD();

  return (
    <pre>
      <code>{JSON.stringify(keyboard)}</code>
    </pre>
  );
}

Table of Content

• Options
  • allow/block
  • combos
  • initialValue
  • preventDefault
  • ref
• Performance
  • Destructuring
  • Memoization
• Examples
• Learn

Options

You can pass an optional options object.

const options = { allow: ["w", "a", "s", "d"] };

export default function App() {
  const { w, a ,s ,d }  = useWASD(options);
  ...
}

Available options are:

• allow
• block
• combos
• initialValue
• preventDefault
• ref

allow/block

You can and should explicitly allow or block keys.

const options = {
  // either
  allow: ["w", "shift", "c"],
  // or
  block: ["c"],
};

Do not use both.

combos

You can define custom combos.

const options = {
  allow: ["w", "shift", "space"],
  combos: { sprint: ["w", "shift"], sprintJump: ["w", "shift", "space"] }
};

export default function App() {
  const { sprint, sprintJump } = useWASD(options);
  ...
}

You don´t need to also allow combos, it´s enough if the keys for the combo are allowed and not blocked.

initialValue

You can initially fill the object.

const options = {
  initialValue: { w: true, shift: false, sprint: false },
};

Note that the "keydown" event will always set keys true, while the "keyup" event will always set to false. Initially setting a key to true will not reverse the mechanism.

preventDefault

You can call event.preventDefault() to prevent default actions for keys.

const options = { preventDefault: ["arrowup", "arrowdown"] };

You can also set it to true to prevent the default function for every key.

const options = { preventDefault: true };

Be aware that by doing so you can jeopardize the a11y

ref

By default the EventListener will be added to the document, if you want it to be added to another element, you can pass it as ref.

export default function App() {
  const ref = useRef();
  const keyboard = useWASD({...options, ref});
  ...
}

Performance

Destructuring

We recommend destructuring the object returned by useWASD.

export default function App() {
-  const keyboard  = useWASD();
+  const { w, a ,s ,d }  = useWASD();
  ...
}

Memoization

We recommend memoizing the options object.

Here are 3 common examples of passing the options object:

1. Declare it outside the Component.

const options = {...};

export default function App() {
  const keyboard = useWASD(options);
  ...
}

2. Using useMemo hook.

export default function App() {
  const options = useMemo(() => ({...}), []);
  const keyboard = useWASD(options);
  ...
}

3. Using useRef hook.

export default function App() {
  const options = useRef({...});
  const keyboard  = useWASD(options.current);
  ...
}

Do not pass the object directly into the hook, this would cause unnecessary rerenders.

export default function App() {
  const keyboard = useWASD({...});
  ...
}

Examples

Basic Example

combos Example

initialValue Example

preventDefault Example

ref Example

Learn

useWASD vanilla source

if you are familiar with typescript, you can also find the source code on github.