What things can be referenced using refs? Use cases of refs?
You can point a ref to any value. However, the most common use case for a ref is to access a DOM element.
For example, this is handy if you want to focus an input programmatically. When you pass a ref to a ref attribute in JSX, like <div ref={myRef}>, React will put the corresponding DOM element into myRef.current. Once the element is removed from the DOM, React will update myRef.current to be null.
There are a few good use cases for refs:
Managing focus, text selection, or media playback.
Triggering imperative animations.
Integrating with third-party DOM libraries.