Programmatically navigate using React router

UPDATE: 2022: React Router v6.6.1 with useNavigate

The useHistory() hook is now deprecated. If you are using React Router 6, the proper way to navigate programmatically is as follows:

import { useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";

function HomeButton() {
  const navigate = useNavigate();

  function handleClick() {
    navigate("/home");
  }

  return (
    <button type="button" onClick={handleClick}>
      Go home
    </button>
  );
}

React Router v5.1.0 with hooks

There is a new useHistory hook in React Router >5.1.0 if you are using React >16.8.0 and functional components.

import { useHistory } from "react-router-dom";

function HomeButton() {
  const history = useHistory();

  function handleClick() {
    history.push("/home");
  }

  return (
    <button type="button" onClick={handleClick}>
      Go home
    </button>
  );
}

React Router v4

With v4 of React Router, there are three approaches that you can take to programmatic routing within components.

1. Use the withRouter higher-order component.
2. Use composition and render a <Route>
3. Use the context.

React Router is mostly a wrapper around the history library. history handles interaction with the browser's window.history for you with its browser and hash histories. It also provides a memory history which is useful for environments that don't have a global history. This is particularly useful in mobile app development (react-native) and unit testing with Node.

A history instance has two methods for navigating: push and replace. If you think of the history as an array of visited locations, push will add a new location to the array and replace will replace the current location in the array with the new one. Typically you will want to use the push method when you are navigating.

In earlier versions of React Router, you had to create your own history instance, but in v4 the <BrowserRouter>, <HashRouter>, and <MemoryRouter> components will create a browser, hash, and memory instances for you. React Router makes the properties and methods of the history instance associated with your router available through the context, under the router object.

1. Use the withRouter higher-order component

The withRouter higher-order component will inject the history object as a prop of the component. This allows you to access the push and replace methods without having to deal with the context.

import { withRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
// this also works with react-router-native

const Button = withRouter(({ history }) => (
  <button
    type='button'
    onClick={() => { history.push('/new-location') }}
  >
    Click Me!
  </button>
))

2. Use composition and render a <Route>

The <Route> component isn't just for matching locations. You can render a pathless route and it will always match the current location. The <Route> component passes the same props as withRouter, so you will be able to access the history methods through the history prop.

import { Route } from 'react-router-dom'

const Button = () => (
  <Route render={({ history}) => (
    <button
      type='button'
      onClick={() => { history.push('/new-location') }}
    >
      Click Me!
    </button>
  )} />
)

3. Use the context*

But you probably should not

The last option is one that you should only use if you feel comfortable working with React's context model (React's Context API is stable as of v16).

const Button = (props, context) => (
  <button
    type='button'
    onClick={() => {
      // context.history.push === history.push
      context.history.push('/new-location')
    }}
  >
    Click Me!
  </button>
)

// you need to specify the context type so that it
// is available within the component
Button.contextTypes = {
  history: React.PropTypes.shape({
    push: React.PropTypes.func.isRequired
  })
}

1 and 2 are the simplest choices to implement, so for most use cases, they are your best bets.

React-Router v6+ Answer

TL;DR: You can use the new useNavigate hook.

import { useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";

function Component() {
  let navigate = useNavigate();
  // Somewhere in your code, e.g. inside a handler:
  navigate("/posts"); 
}

The useNavigate hook returns a function which can be used for programmatic navigation.

Example from the react router documentaion

import { useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";

function SignupForm() {
  let navigate = useNavigate();

  async function handleSubmit(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    await submitForm(event.target);
    navigate("../success", { replace: true });
    // replace: true will replace the current entry in 
    // the history stack instead of adding a new one.

  }

  return <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>{/* ... */}</form>;
}

React-Router 5.1.0+ Answer (using hooks and React >16.8)

You can use the useHistory hook on Functional Components and Programmatically navigate:

import { useHistory } from "react-router-dom";

function HomeButton() {
  let history = useHistory();
  // use history.push('/some/path') here
};

React-Router 4.0.0+ Answer

In 4.0 and above, use the history as a prop of your component.

class Example extends React.Component {
   // use `this.props.history.push('/some/path')` here
};

NOTE: this.props.history does not exist in the case your component was not rendered by <Route>. You should use <Route path="..." component={YourComponent}/> to have this.props.history in YourComponent

React-Router 3.0.0+ Answer

In 3.0 and above, use the router as a prop of your component.

class Example extends React.Component {
   // use `this.props.router.push('/some/path')` here
};

React-Router 2.4.0+ Answer

In 2.4 and above, use a higher order component to get the router as a prop of your component.

import { withRouter } from 'react-router';

class Example extends React.Component {
   // use `this.props.router.push('/some/path')` here
};

// Export the decorated class
var DecoratedExample = withRouter(Example);

// PropTypes
Example.propTypes = {
  router: React.PropTypes.shape({
    push: React.PropTypes.func.isRequired
  }).isRequired
};

React-Router 2.0.0+ Answer

This version is backwards compatible with 1.x so there's no need to an Upgrade Guide. Just going through the examples should be good enough.

That said, if you wish to switch to the new pattern, there's a browserHistory module inside the router that you can access with

import { browserHistory } from 'react-router'

Now you have access to your browser history, so you can do things like push, replace, etc... Like:

browserHistory.push('/some/path')

Further reading: Histories and Navigation

React-Router 1.x.x Answer

I will not go into upgrading details. You can read about that in the Upgrade Guide

The main change about the question here is the change from Navigation mixin to History. Now it's using the browser historyAPI to change route so we will use pushState() from now on.

Here's an exemple using Mixin:

var Example = React.createClass({
  mixins: [ History ],
  navigateToHelpPage () {
    this.history.pushState(null, `/help`);
  }
})

Note that this History comes from rackt/history project. Not from React-Router itself.

If you don't want to use Mixin for some reason (maybe because of ES6 class), then you can access the history that you get from the router from this.props.history. It will be only accessible for the components rendered by your Router. So, if you want to use it in any child components it needs to be passed down as an attribute via props.

You can read more about the new release at their 1.0.x documentation

Here is a help page specifically about navigating outside your component

It recommends grabbing a reference history = createHistory() and calling replaceState on that.

React-Router 0.13.x Answer

I got into the same problem and could only find the solution with the Navigation mixin that comes with react-router.

Here's how I did it

import React from 'react';
import {Navigation} from 'react-router';

let Authentication = React.createClass({
  mixins: [Navigation],

  handleClick(e) {
    e.preventDefault();

    this.transitionTo('/');
  },

  render(){
    return (<div onClick={this.handleClick}>Click me!</div>);
  }
});

I was able to call transitionTo() without the need to access .context

Or you could try the fancy ES6 class

import React from 'react';

export default class Authentication extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleClick = this.handleClick.bind(this);
  }

  handleClick(e) {
    e.preventDefault();

    this.context.router.transitionTo('/');
  }

  render(){
    return (<div onClick={this.handleClick}>Click me!</div>);
  }
}

Authentication.contextTypes = {
  router: React.PropTypes.func.isRequired
};

React-Router-Redux

Note: if you're using Redux, there is another project called React-Router-Redux that gives you redux bindings for ReactRouter, using somewhat the same approach that React-Redux does

React-Router-Redux has a few methods available that allow for simple navigating from inside action creators. These can be particularly useful for people that have existing architecture in React Native, and they wish to utilize the same patterns in React Web with minimal boilerplate overhead.

Explore the following methods:

• push(location)
• replace(location)
• go(number)
• goBack()
• goForward()

Here is an example usage, with Redux-Thunk:

./actioncreators.js

import { goBack } from 'react-router-redux'

export const onBackPress = () => (dispatch) => dispatch(goBack())

./viewcomponent.js

<button
  disabled={submitting}
  className="cancel_button"
  onClick={(e) => {
    e.preventDefault()
    this.props.onBackPress()
  }}
>
  CANCEL
</button>

React-Router v2

For the most recent release (v2.0.0-rc5), the recommended navigation method is by directly pushing onto the history singleton. You can see that in action in the Navigating outside of Components doc.

Relevant excerpt:

import { browserHistory } from 'react-router';
browserHistory.push('/some/path');

If using the newer react-router API, you need to make use of the history from this.props when inside of components so:

this.props.history.push('/some/path');

It also offers pushState but that is deprecated per logged warnings.

If using react-router-redux, it offers a push function you can dispatch like so:

import { push } from 'react-router-redux';
this.props.dispatch(push('/some/path'));

However this may be only used to change the URL, not to actually navigate to the page.

React-Router 4.x answer

On my end, I like to have a single history object that I can carry even outside components. I like to have a single history.js file that I import on demand, and just manipulate it.

You just have to change BrowserRouter to Router, and specify the history prop. This doesn't change anything for you, except that you have your own history object that you can manipulate as you want.

You need to install history, the library used by react-router.

Example usage, ES6 notation:

history.js

import createBrowserHistory from 'history/createBrowserHistory'
export default createBrowserHistory()

BasicComponent.js

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import history from './history';

class BasicComponent extends Component {

    goToIndex(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        history.push('/');
    }

    render(){
        return <a href="#" onClick={this.goToIndex}>Previous</a>;
    }
}

If you have to navigate from a component that is actually rendered from a Route component, you can also access history from props, like that:

BasicComponent.js

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class BasicComponent extends Component {

    navigate(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        this.props.history.push('/url');
    }

    render(){
        return <a href="#" onClick={this.navigate}>Previous</a>;
    }
}

Here's how you do this with react-router v2.0.0 with ES6. react-router has moved away from mixins.

import React from 'react';

export default class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  navigateToPage = () => {
    this.context.router.push('/my-route')
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <button onClick={this.navigateToPage}>Go!</button>
    );
  }
}

MyComponent.contextTypes = {
  router: React.PropTypes.object.isRequired
}

For this one, who does not control the server side and because of this is using hash router v2:

Place your history into separate file (e.g. app_history.js ES6):

import { useRouterHistory } from 'react-router'
import { createHashHistory } from 'history'
const appHistory = useRouterHistory(createHashHistory)({ queryKey: false });

export default appHistory;

And use it everywhere!

Your entry point for react-router (app.js ES6):

import React from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'
import { Router, Route, Redirect } from 'react-router'
import appHistory from './app_history'
...
const render((
  <Router history={appHistory}>
  ...
  </Router>
), document.querySelector('[data-role="app"]'));

Your navigation inside any component (ES6):

import appHistory from '../app_history'
...
ajaxLogin('/login', (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err); // login failed
  } else {
    // logged in
    appHistory.replace('/dashboard'); // or .push() if you don't need .replace()
  }
})

React Router v6

I haven't touched React in a while, but want to thank and highlight the comment below by Shimrit Snapir:

on React-Router 6.0 <Redirect /> changed to <Navigate />

React Router V4

tl:dr;

if (navigate) {
  return <Redirect to="/" push={true} />
}

The simple and declarative answer is that you need to use <Redirect to={URL} push={boolean} /> in combination with setState()

push: boolean - when true, redirecting will push a new entry onto the history instead of replacing the current one.

import { Redirect } from 'react-router'

class FooBar extends React.Component {
  state = {
    navigate: false
  }

  render() {
    const { navigate } = this.state

    // Here is the important part
    if (navigate) {
      return <Redirect to="/" push={true} />
    }
   // ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    return (
      <div>
        <button onClick={() => this.setState({ navigate: true })}>
          Home
        </button>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

A full example is here. Read more here.

PS. The example uses ES7+ Property Initializers to initialise state. Look here as well, if you're interested.

Warning: this answer covers only ReactRouter versions before 1.0

I will update this answer with 1.0.0-rc1 use cases after!

You can do this without mixins too.

let Authentication = React.createClass({
  contextTypes: {
    router: React.PropTypes.func
  },
  handleClick(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    this.context.router.transitionTo('/');
  },
  render(){
    return (<div onClick={this.handleClick}>Click me!</div>);
  }
});

The gotcha with contexts is that it is not accessible unless you define the contextTypes on the class.

As for what is context, it is an object, like props, that are passed down from parent to child, but it is passed down implicitly, without having to redeclare props each time. See https://www.tildedave.com/2014/11/15/introduction-to-contexts-in-react-js.html

Here's the simplest and cleanest way to do it, circa current React-Router 3.0.0 and ES6:

React-Router 3.x.x with ES6:

import { withRouter } from 'react-router';

class Example extends React.Component {
   // use `this.props.router.push('/some/path')` here
};

// Export the decorated class
export default withRouter(Example);

Or, if it's not your default class, export like:

withRouter(Example);
export { Example };

Note that in 3.x.x, the <Link> component itself is using router.push, so you can pass it anything you would pass the <Link to= tag, like:

   this.props.router.push({pathname: '/some/path', query: {key1: 'val1', key2: 'val2'})'

To do the navigation programmatically, you need to push a new history to the props.history in your component, so something like this can do the work for you:

//using ES6
import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {

  constructor(props) {
    super(props)
    this.handleClick = this.handleClick.bind(this)
  }

  handleClick(e) {
    e.preventDefault()
    /* Look at here, you can add it here */
    this.props.history.push('/redirected');
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <button onClick={this.handleClick}>
          Redirect!!!
        </button>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

export default App;

For ES6 + React components, the following solution worked for me.

I followed Felippe skinner, but added an end to end solution to help beginners like me.

Below are the versions I used:

"react-router": "^2.7.0"

"react": "^15.3.1"

Below is my react component where I used programmatic navigation using react-router:

import React from 'react';

class loginComp extends React.Component {
   constructor( context) {
    super(context);
    this.state = {
      uname: '',
      pwd: ''
    };
  }

  redirectToMainPage(){
        this.context.router.replace('/home');
  }

  render(){
    return <div>
           // skipping html code 
             <button onClick={this.redirectToMainPage.bind(this)}>Redirect</button>
    </div>;
  }
};

 loginComp.contextTypes = {
    router: React.PropTypes.object.isRequired
 }

 module.exports = loginComp;

Below is the configuration for my router:

 import { Router, Route, IndexRedirect, browserHistory } from 'react-router'

 render(<Router history={browserHistory}>
          <Route path='/' component={ParentComp}>
            <IndexRedirect to = "/login"/>
            <Route path='/login' component={LoginComp}/>
            <Route path='/home' component={HomeComp}/>
            <Route path='/repair' component={RepairJobComp} />
            <Route path='/service' component={ServiceJobComp} />
          </Route>
        </Router>, document.getElementById('root'));

It may not be the best approach but... Using react-router v4, the following TypeScript code could give an idea for some.

In the rendered component below, e.g. LoginPage, router object is accessible and just call router.transitionTo('/homepage') to navigate.

Navigation code was taken from.

"react-router": "^4.0.0-2", "react": "^15.3.1",

import Router from 'react-router/BrowserRouter';
import { History } from 'react-history/BrowserHistory';
import createHistory from 'history/createBrowserHistory';
const history = createHistory();

interface MatchWithPropsInterface {
  component: typeof React.Component,
  router: Router,
  history: History,
  exactly?: any,
  pattern: string
}

class MatchWithProps extends React.Component<MatchWithPropsInterface,any> {
  render() {
    return(
      <Match {...this.props} render={(matchProps) => (
             React.createElement(this.props.component, this.props)

        )}
       />
    )
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
    <Router>
      {({ router }) => (
        <div>
          <MatchWithProps exactly pattern="/" component={LoginPage} router={router} history={history} />
          <MatchWithProps pattern="/login" component={LoginPage} router={router} history={history} />
          <MatchWithProps pattern="/homepage" component={HomePage} router={router} history={history} />
          <Miss component={NotFoundView} />
        </div>
      )}
    </Router>,

   document.getElementById('app')
);

In React Router v4, I follow these two ways to route programmatically.

1. this.props.history.push("/something/something")
2. this.props.history.replace("/something/something")

Number two

Replaces the current entry on the history stack

To get history in props you may have to wrap your component with

withRouter

In React Router v6

import { useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";

function Invoices() {
  let navigate = useNavigate();
  return (
    <div>
      <NewInvoiceForm
        onSubmit={async event => {
          let newInvoice = await createInvoice(event.target);
          navigate(`/invoices/${newInvoice.id}`);
        }}
      />
    </div>
  );
}

Getting Started with React Router v6

In React-Router v4 and ES6

You can use withRouter and this.props.history.push.

import {withRouter} from 'react-router-dom';

class Home extends Component {

    componentDidMount() {
        this.props.history.push('/redirect-to');
    }
}

export default withRouter(Home);

To use withRouter with a class-based component, try something like this below. Don't forget to change the export statement to use withRouter:

import { withRouter } from 'react-router-dom'

class YourClass extends React.Component {
  yourFunction = () => {
    doSomeAsyncAction(() =>
      this.props.history.push('/other_location')
    )
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <Form onSubmit={ this.yourFunction } />
      </div>
    )
  }
}

export default withRouter(YourClass);

With React-Router v4 on the horizon, there is now a new way of doing this.

import { MemoryRouter, BrowserRouter } from 'react-router';

const navigator = global && global.navigator && global.navigator.userAgent;
const hasWindow = typeof window !== 'undefined';
const isBrowser = typeof navigator !== 'undefined' && navigator.indexOf('Node.js') === -1;
const Router = isBrowser ? BrowserRouter : MemoryRouter;

<Router location="/page-to-go-to"/>

react-lego is an example app that shows how to use/update react-router and it includes example functional tests which navigate the app.

Based on the previous answers from José Antonio Postigo and Ben Wheeler:

The novelty? Is to be written in TypeScript and uses decorators or a static property/field

import * as React from "react";
import Component = React.Component;
import { withRouter } from "react-router";

export interface INavigatorProps {
    router?: ReactRouter.History.History;
}

/**
 * Note: goes great with mobx
 * @inject("something") @withRouter @observer
 */
@withRouter
export class Navigator extends Component<INavigatorProps, {}>{
    navigate: (to: string) => void;
    constructor(props: INavigatorProps) {
        super(props);
        let self = this;
        this.navigate = (to) => self.props.router.push(to);
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <ul>
                <li onClick={() => this.navigate("/home")}>
                    Home
                </li>
                <li onClick={() => this.navigate("/about")}>
                    About
                </li>
            </ul>
        )
    }
}

/**
 * Non decorated
 */
export class Navigator2 extends Component<INavigatorProps, {}> {

    static contextTypes = {
        router: React.PropTypes.object.isRequired,
    };

    navigate: (to: string) => void;
    constructor(props: INavigatorProps, context: any) {
        super(props, context);
        let s = this;
        this.navigate = (to) =>
            s.context.router.push(to);
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <ul>
                <li onClick={() => this.navigate("/home")}>
                    Home
                </li>
                <li onClick={() => this.navigate("/about")}>
                    About
                </li>
            </ul>
        )
    }
}

with whatever npm installed today.

"react-router": "^3.0.0" and
"@types/react-router": "^2.0.41"

For those who are already using React Router v6, this can be done using useNavigate hook provided by react-router.

Navigation with this hook is pretty simple:

import { generatePath, useNavigate } from 'react-router';

navigate(-1); // navigates back
navigate('/my/path'); // navigates to a specific path
navigate(generatePath('my/path/:id', { id: 1 })); // navigates to a dynamic path, generatePath is very useful for url replacements

For Latest react-router-dom v6

useHistory() is replaced with useNavigate().

You need to use:

import { useNavigate } from 'react-router-dom';
const navigate = useNavigate();
navigate('/your-page-link');

React Router v6 with hooks

import {useNavigate} from 'react-router-dom';
let navigate = useNavigate();
navigate('home');

And to move across the browser history,

navigate(-1); ---> Go back
navigate(1);  ---> Go forward
navigate(-2); ---> Move two steps backward.

With the current React version (15.3), this.props.history.push('/location'); worked for me, but it showed the following warning:

browser.js:49 Warning: [react-router] props.history and context.history are deprecated. Please use context.router.

and I solved it using context.router like this:

import React from 'react';

class MyComponent extends React.Component {

    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.backPressed = this.backPressed.bind(this);
    }

    backPressed() {
        this.context.router.push('/back-location');
    }

    ...
}

MyComponent.contextTypes = {
    router: React.PropTypes.object.isRequired
};

export default MyComponent;

If you are using hash or browser history then you can do

hashHistory.push('/login');
browserHistory.push('/login');

React-Router V4

If you're using version 4 then you can use my library (shameless plug) where you simply dispatch an action and everything just works!

dispatch(navigateTo("/aboutUs"));

trippler

Those who are facing issues in implementing this in React Router v4.

Here is a working solution for navigating through the React app from redux actions.

File history.js

import createHistory from 'history/createBrowserHistory'

export default createHistory()

Files App.js/Route.jsx

import { Router, Route } from 'react-router-dom'
import history from './history'
...
<Router history={history}>
 <Route path="/test" component={Test}/>
</Router>

File *another_file.js or redux file

import history from './history'

history.push('/test') // This should change the URL and rerender Test component

All thanks to this comment on GitHub: ReactTraining issues comment

You can also use the useHistory hook in a stateless component. Example from the documentation:

import { useHistory } from "react-router"

function HomeButton() {
  const history = useHistory()

  return (
    <button type="button" onClick={() => history.push("/home")}>
      Go home
    </button>
  )
}

Note: Hooks were added in react-router@5.1.0 and require react@>=16.8

Programmatically navigate in class-based components.

import { Redirect } from "react-router-dom";

class MyComponent extends React.Component{
    state = {rpath: null}

    const goTo = (path) => this.setState({rpath: path});

    render(){
        if(this.state.rpath){
            return <Redirect to={this.state.rpath}/>
        }
        .....
        .....
    }
}

In my answer there are three different ways to redirect programmatically to a route. Some of the solutions has been presented already, but the following ones focused only for functional components with an additional demo application.

Using the following versions:

react: 16.13.1

react-dom: 16.13.1

react-router: 5.2.0

react-router-dom: 5.2.0

typescript: 3.7.2

Configuration:

So first of all the solution is using HashRouter, configured as follows:

<HashRouter>
    // ... buttons for redirect

    <Switch>
      <Route exact path="/(|home)" children={Home} />
      <Route exact path="/usehistory" children={UseHistoryResult} />
      <Route exact path="/withrouter" children={WithRouterResult} />
      <Route exact path="/redirectpush" children={RedirectPushResult} />
      <Route children={Home} />
    </Switch>
</HashRouter>

From the documentation about <HashRouter>:

A <Router> that uses the hash portion of the URL (i.e. window.location.hash) to keep your UI in sync with the URL.

Solutions:

1. Using <Redirect> to push using useState:

Using in a functional component (RedirectPushAction component from my repository) we can use useState to handle redirect. The tricky part is once the redirection happened, we need to set the redirect state back to false. By using setTimeOut with 0 delay we are waiting until React commits Redirect to the DOM and then getting back the button in order to use it the next time.

Please find my example below:

const [redirect, setRedirect] = useState(false);
const handleRedirect = useCallback(() => {
    let render = null;
    if (redirect) {
        render = <Redirect to="/redirectpush" push={true} />

        // In order wait until committing to the DOM
        // and get back the button for clicking next time
        setTimeout(() => setRedirect(false), 0);
    }
    return render;
}, [redirect]);

return <>
    {handleRedirect()}
    <button onClick={() => setRedirect(true)}>
        Redirect push
    </button>
</>

From <Redirect> documentation:

Rendering a <Redirect> will navigate to a new location. The new location will override the current location in the history stack, like server-side redirects (HTTP 3xx) do.

2. Using useHistory hook:

In my solution there is a component called UseHistoryAction which represents the following:

let history = useHistory();

return <button onClick={() => { history.push('/usehistory') }}>
    useHistory redirect
</button>

The useHistory hook gives us access to the history object which helps us programmatically navigate or change routes.

3. Using withRouter, get the history from props:

Created one component called WithRouterAction, displays as below:

const WithRouterAction = (props:any) => {
    const { history } = props;

    return <button onClick={() => { history.push('/withrouter') }}>
        withRouter redirect
    </button>
}

export default withRouter(WithRouterAction);

Reading from withRouter documentation:

You can get access to the history object's properties and the closest <Route>'s match via the withRouter higher-order component. withRouter will pass updated match, location, and history props to the wrapped component whenever it renders.

Demo:

For better representation I have built a GitHub repository with these examples, please find it below:

React Router Programmatically Redirect Examples

The right answer was for me at the time of writing

this.context.router.history.push('/');

But you need to add PropTypes to your component

Header.contextTypes = {
  router: PropTypes.object.isRequired
}
export default Header;

Don't forget to import PropTypes

import PropTypes from 'prop-types';

If you happen to pair RR4 with redux through react-router-redux, using the routing action creators from react-router-redux is an option as well.

import { push, replace, ... } from 'react-router-redux'

class WrappedComponent extends React.Component {
  handleRedirect(url, replaceState = true) {
    replaceState
      ? this.props.dispatch(replace(url))
      : this.props.dispatch(push(url))
  }
  render() { ... }
}

export default connect(null)(WrappedComponent)

If you use redux thunk/saga to manage async flow, import the above action creators in redux actions and hook to React components using mapDispatchToProps might be better.

Try React Hook Router instead, "the modern alternative to react-router":

import { useRoutes, usePath, A} from "hookrouter";

To answer the OP's question about linking through a select box, you can do it:

navigate('/about');

Updated answer

I think React Hook Router was a good starter kit and helped me learn about routing, but I have since updated to React Router for its history and query parameter handling.

import { useLocation, useHistory } from 'react-router-dom';


const Component = (props) => {
    const history = useHistory();

    // Programmatically navigate
    history.push(newUrlString);
}

You push where you want to navigate into the location.history.