How to Disable TextInput in React Native

In mobile apps, it’s common to require form controls that can be enabled or disabled based on certain conditions. One such control is the TextInput in React Native.

In this blog post, we will go through the ways you can disable TextInput and scenarios where this might be useful.

Prerequisites

• A basic understanding of React Native
• A React Native development environment set up

The Basics: Disabling TextInput

Disabling TextInput in React Native is pretty straightforward. You just need to set the editable prop to false.

import React from 'react';
import {TextInput, View, StyleSheet} from 'react-native';

const App = () => {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <TextInput
        style={styles.input}
        editable={false}
        placeholder="This input is disabled"
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  input: {
    height: 40,
    borderColor: 'gray',
    borderWidth: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#f2f2f2',
  },
});

export default App;

We import the required modules. The editable prop is set to false to disable the input field. The backgroundColor is set to #f2f2f2 to make the input field appear grayed out.

Conditionally Disable TextInput

There are scenarios where you’d want to disable the TextInput based on certain conditions.

const App = () => {
  const [isDisabled, setDisabled] = React.useState(false);

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <TextInput
        style={styles.input}
        editable={!isDisabled}
        placeholder="Conditionally disabled"
      />
    </View>
  );
};

We use useState to manage the disabled state of TextInput. The editable prop is dynamically set based on the isDisabled state variable.

Use Cases

• Form Submission: Disable input fields while submitting a form to prevent changes.
• User Permissions: Disable fields based on the user’s role or permissions.
• Data Loading: Disable input fields while waiting for data to load.

Disabling TextInput in React Native is a straightforward process. You just need to use the editable prop of the TextInput component.