Mastering React Tables: A Comprehensive Guide
What is TanStack Table?
TanStack Table, formerly known as React Table, is a popular table library in React that offers a lightweight and customizable solution for building tables. As a headless library, it doesn’t render or supply UI elements, giving you complete control over designing your table using the state and callback of the React Table API.
When to Use React Table
Consider using React Table when your table UI requires:
- Basic features like sorting, filtering, and pagination
- Custom UI design without affecting functionality
- Easy extensibility through custom plugin Hooks
When Not to Use React Table
Choose another React data table library when you need:
- Default support for fixed headers and columns
- Out-of-the-box support for horizontal and vertical scroll for both touch and non-touch devices
Use Cases for React Table
React Table is ideal for simple tables that require basic features like searching, sorting, and filtering. Examples include:
- Sports leaderboards with statistics
- Financial data tables with custom elements
Building a React Table Component
Let’s create a simple table UI with basic functionalities like sorting and searching using React Table. We’ll use the TVMAZE API to fetch movie information and demonstrate how to customize the table with React Table.
Custom Styling in React Table
With React Table, you can define custom styles for each cell. We’ll show you how to create a badge-like custom component to display genres and customize the runtime column to show watch hours and minutes.
Adding Search Functionality with getFilteredRowModel
We’ll explore how to add global search capabilities to our table using the getFilteredRowModel property in the useReactTable Hook.
Adding Sorting with getSortedRowModel
Let’s implement sorting functionality using the getSortedRowModel method, allowing users to click to enable sorting for any column.
Grouping with getGroupedRowModel
We’ll demonstrate how to add a grouping feature using the getGroupedRowModel method, great for cases where users want to group columns according to a certain category.
Column Resizing
TanStack Table provides a ColumnSizing API to help users resize table columns. We’ll show you how to implement resizing functionality.
Migrating to Newer React Table Versions
If you’re working with legacy codebases, learn how to migrate from an old React Table package to a more recent version, i.e., TanStack Table.
React Table Alternatives
Although React Table is the most popular React table library, it’s not always the best solution for building tables in React. Explore alternative libraries like react-data-grid, react-virtualized, and more.
Choosing a React Table Library
For a simple page with limited data, custom styles, and minimum interactivity, use React Table. For a mini Google Sheets-like application with limited data, use react-data-grid or react-datasheet. For a Google Sheets or Airtable-like application with a large dataset, use react-data-grid. When working with a very large dataset and needing a custom UI, opt for react-virtualized.