I have a question regarding variables and references in React TypeScript or JavaScript if you want.

I have the following enum:

enum QuestionType {
  MultipleChoice,
  TrueFalse,
  FreeText
}

And my code looks like this (simplified):

//somewhere in an useEffect hook
//using the useState hook
setSelectedQuestionType(QuestionType.TrueFalse);
let previousQuestionType : QuestionType;
prevQuestionType = selectedQuestionType;
setSelectedQuestionType(QuestionType.MultipleChoice);

I expect the following outcome:

console.log(selectedQuestionType); //Expected: QuestionType.MultipleChoice or 0
console.log(prevQuestionType); //Expected: QuestionType.TrueFalse or 1

But the actual outcome is the following:

console.log(selectedQuestionType); //Actual: QuestionType.MultipleChoice or 0
console.log(prevQuestionType); //Actual: QuestionType.MultipleChoice or 0

I already read on some posts that js only stores references to values and that a simple '=' will just create a new reference to that value. But I am so confused on how I get this to work properly.

Thank you in advance!