Unlock the Power of Data Visualization: Top Table Libraries for React

As a React developer, you know how crucial it is to effectively represent data in a table format. But, manually creating a table can be a time-consuming task, especially when it comes to styling. Fortunately, React’s vast ecosystem offers a multitude of third-party libraries to choose from.

Material-Table: A Powerful and Popular Choice

Material-Table is a widely-used, open-source library that follows Material UI guidelines to style elements. It provides individual components to tackle styling complexities and supports a minimum React version of 16.8.5. With Material-Table, you can easily create a table with a search bar, pagination, and customizable options.

import MaterialTable from 'aterial-table';

function App() {
  return (
    <MaterialTable
      title="Example Table"
      columns={[
        { title: 'Name', field: 'name' },
        { title: 'Age', field: 'age' },
      ]}
      data={[
        { name: 'John', age: 25 },
        { name: 'Jane', age: 30 },
      ]}
    />
  );
}

React-Bootstrap-Table2: A Perfect Match for Bootstrap-Based UI

If you’re using Bootstrap-based UI components in your React app, react-bootstrap-table2 is an ideal choice. It offers a cleaner design, a small bundle size, and seamless integration with Bootstrap. This library provides a range of features, including sorting, pagination, and customization options.

import BootstrapTable from 'eact-bootstrap-table2';

function App() {
  return (
    <BootstrapTable
      keyField="id"
      data={[
        { id: 1, name: 'John', age: 25 },
        { id: 2, name: 'Jane', age: 30 },
      ]}
      columns={[
        { dataField: 'name', text: 'Name' },
        { dataField: 'age', text: 'Age' },
      ]}
    />
  );
}

MUI-Datatables: A Feature-Rich Material UI-Based Component

MUI-Datatables is another Material UI-based data table component that offers a wide range of features, including filtering, selecting rows, searching, exporting to CSV, and more. It’s an excellent choice if you’re using a Material UI-based design system in your React app.

import MUIDataTable from 'ui-datatables';

function App() {
  return (
    <MUIDataTable
      title="Example Table"
      columns={[
        { name: 'Name', options: { filter: true } },
        { name: 'Age', options: { filter: true } },
      ]}
      data={[
        { name: 'John', age: 25 },
        { name: 'Jane', age: 30 },
      ]}
    />
  );
}

React Virtualized: A Multi-Purpose Component Library

React Virtualized is a highly popular, open-source component library that supports the rendering of large lists and data tables. It offers a simple table format, as well as other formats like grid, masonry, list, and collection. Although it requires custom styles and functionalities, it’s an excellent choice for rendering scrollable lists of large data sets.

import { Column, Table } from 'eact-virtualized';

function App() {
  return (
    <Table
      width={300}
      height={300}
      headerHeight={20}
      rowHeight={30}
      rowCount={100}
      rowGetter={({ index }) => ({ id: index, name: `Row ${index}` })}
    >
      <Column
        label="Name"
        dataKey="name"
        width={100}
      />
    </Table>
  );
}

React Table: A Lightweight and Composable Utility Library

React Table is a lightweight, composable, and extensible utility library that doesn’t come with markup or styles. It’s an excellent choice if you want to use a table component library that can be integrated with any design system. React Table provides hooks for everything, including pagination, selecting rows, using filters, and resizing columns.

import { useTable, usePagination } from 'eact-table';

function App() {
  const { getTableProps, getTheadProps, getTrProps, getThProps, getTdProps } = useTable({
    columns: [
      { Header: 'Name', accessor: 'name' },
      { Header: 'Age', accessor: 'age' },
    ],
    data: [
      { name: 'John', age: 25 },
      { name: 'Jane', age: 30 },
    ],
  });

  return (
    <table {...getTableProps()}>
      <thead>
        <tr {...getTheadProps()}>
          <th {...getThProps({ column: { Header: 'Name' } })}>Name</th>
          <th {...getThProps({ column: { Header: 'Age' } })}>Age</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr {...getTrProps({})}>
          <td {...getTdProps({ column: { Header: 'Name' } })}>John</td>
          <td {...getTdProps({ column: { Header: 'Age' } })}>25</td>
        </tr>
        <tr {...getTrProps({})}>
          <td {...getTdProps({ column: { Header: 'Name' } })}>Jane</td>
          <td {...getTdProps({ column: { Header: 'Age' } })}>30</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  );
}

Choosing the Right Library for Your Needs

Each of these libraries has its unique strengths and weaknesses. When selecting a table library for your React app, consider factors like:

• Design System: Ensure the library aligns with your app’s design system.
• Customization Options: Choose a library that provides the necessary customization options for your app.
• Feature Requirements: Select a library that meets your app’s feature requirements.

By choosing the right library, you can efficiently represent data in a table format and provide a better user experience.