Is it safe to use ref.current as useEffect’s dependency when ref points to a DOM element?

It isn’t safe because mutating the reference won’t trigger a render, therefore, won’t trigger the useEffect.

React Hook useEffect has an unnecessary dependency: ‘ref.current’.
Either exclude it or remove the dependency array. Mutable values like
‘ref.current’ aren’t valid dependencies because mutating them doesn’t
re-render the component. (react-hooks/exhaustive-deps)

An anti-pattern example:

const Foo = () => {
  const [, render] = useReducer(p => !p, false);
  const ref = useRef(0);

  const onClickRender = () => {
    ref.current += 1;
    render();
  };

  const onClickNoRender = () => {
    ref.current += 1;
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    console.log('ref changed');
  }, [ref.current]);

  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={onClickRender}>Render</button>
      <button onClick={onClickNoRender}>No Render</button>
    </>
  );
};

---

A real life use case related to this pattern is when we want to have a persistent reference, even when the element unmounts.

Check the next example where we can’t persist with element sizing when it unmounts. We will try to use useRef with useEffect combo as above, but it won’t work.

// BAD EXAMPLE, SEE SOLUTION BELOW
const Component = () => {
  const ref = useRef();

  const [isMounted, toggle] = useReducer((p) => !p, true);
  const [elementRect, setElementRect] = useState();

  useEffect(() => {
    console.log(ref.current);
    setElementRect(ref.current?.getBoundingClientRect());
  }, [ref.current]);

  return (
    <>
      {isMounted && <div ref={ref}>Example</div>}
      <button onClick={toggle}>Toggle</button>
      <pre>{JSON.stringify(elementRect, null, 2)}</pre>
    </>
  );
};

---

Surprisingly, to fix it we need to handle the node directly while memoizing the function with useCallback:

// GOOD EXAMPLE
const Component = () => {
  const [isMounted, toggle] = useReducer((p) => !p, true);
  const [elementRect, setElementRect] = useState();

  const handleRect = useCallback((node) => {
    setElementRect(node?.getBoundingClientRect());
  }, []);

  return (
    <>
      {isMounted && <div ref={handleRect}>Example</div>}
      <button onClick={toggle}>Toggle</button>
      <pre>{JSON.stringify(elementRect, null, 2)}</pre>
    </>
  );
};

• See another example in React Docs: How can I measure a DOM node?
• Further reading and more examples see uses of useEffect