[reactjs] How to scroll to bottom in react?

The easiest and best way I would recommend is.

My ReactJS version: 16.12.0


For Class Components

HTML structure inside render() function

    render()
        return(
            <body>
                <div ref="messageList">
                    <div>Message 1</div>
                    <div>Message 2</div>
                    <div>Message 3</div>
                </div>
            </body>
        )
    )

scrollToBottom() function which will get reference of the element. and scroll according to scrollIntoView() function.

  scrollToBottom = () => {
    const { messageList } = this.refs;
    messageList.scrollIntoView({behavior: "smooth", block: "end", inline: "nearest"});
  }

and call the above function inside componentDidMount() and componentDidUpdate()


For Functional Components (Hooks)

Import useRef() and useEffect()

import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react'

Inside your export function, (same as calling a useState())

const messageRef = useRef();

And let's assume you have to scroll when page load,

useEffect(() => {
    if (messageRef.current) {
      messageRef.current.scrollIntoView(
        {
          behavior: 'smooth',
          block: 'end',
          inline: 'nearest'
        })
    }
  })

OR if you want it to trigger once an action performed,

useEffect(() => {
  if (messageRef.current) {
    messageRef.current.scrollIntoView(
      {
        behavior: 'smooth',
        block: 'end',
        inline: 'nearest'
      })
  }
},
[stateVariable])

And Finally, to your HTML structure

return(
    <body>
        <div ref={messageRef}> // <= The only different is we are calling a variable here
            <div>Message 1</div>
            <div>Message 2</div>
            <div>Message 3</div>
        </div>
    </body>
)

for more explanation about Element.scrollIntoView() visit developer.mozilla.org

More detailed explanation in Callback refs visit reactjs.org