Why is SectionList ref.current always undefined? - react-native

Question

I am trying to use the scrollToOffset and scrollToIndex that SectionList provides. However, the SectionList ref I am using is always undefined when using ref.current.
In my class component I have the following:
private sectionListRef: any;
constructor(props: SampleScreenProps) {
super(props);
this.sectionListRef = null;
}
componentDidMount = (): void => {
setTimeout(() => this.scrollToSection(), 2000);
};
scrollToSection = (): void => {
// do some calculations to get the itemIndex and sectionIndex to scroll to
this.sectionListRef.scrollToLocation({
animated: false,
itemIndex,
sectionIndex,
viewPosition: 0.5
}); // this fails if the list is huge and the indices are far from the initial render location, and so moves on to onScrollToIndexFailed
};
onScrollToIndexFailed = (error) => {
// this.sectionListRef.current is always undefined in this function
this.sectionListRef.current?.scrollToOffset({
offset: error.averageItemLength * error.index,
animated: true
});
setTimeout(() => {
if (this.state.dataSet.length !== 0 && this.sectionListRef !== null) {
this.sectionListRef.current?.scrollToIndex({ index: error.index, animated: true });
}
}, 10);
};
finally, here's the SectionList itself:
<SectionList
inverted
ref={(ref) => {
this.sectionListRef = ref;
}}
sections={mappedSections}
renderItem={this.renderItem}
renderSectionFooter={this.renderSectionFooter}
keyExtractor={(item, index) => index.toString()}
keyboardShouldPersistTaps="never"
keyboardDismissMode="on-drag"
bounces={false}
initialNumToRender={20}
onScrollToIndexFailed={this.onScrollToIndexFailed}
/>
What is the cause of this?
Edit: I tried doing this.sectionListRef = React.createRef() in the constructor instead, but same result.
I understand scrollToOffset is part of SectionList, but the other two scroll functions are part of the underlying virtualized list, but it should still work the same as far as I know.