Handsontable is one of the leading data grid APIs available on the market. It stands out from the rest of the products due to its rich functionality, high scalability, powerful performance and compatibility with the HyperFormula calculation engine. Despite its advanced features, a React data grid from Handsontable is user-friendly and can be implemented really fast.
This article will tell you more about its core functionality and the process of creating a simple data grid.
Working with
Columns and Rows
A
React data grid from Handsontable is equipped with numerous useful features for
managing columns and rows. Some of the basic options for manipulation available
to you are hiding, moving, freezing and sorting rows and columns. You can also
add and edit headers of rows and columns.
Additionally,
this API provides developers with sorting and filtering tools for columns.
Furthermore, you can create menus and summaries for your columns. Meanwhile,
rows have their own features, too, for instance, trimming and pre-populating.
One
of the most powerful components of the Handsontable API is column and row
virtualization, which contributes to its robust scalability. Virtualization
reduces the amount of data processed at once to an absolute minimum by passing
exclusively the records within the visible area of the table to the DOM.
Scrolling flawlessly iterates through the processed information without causing
lags that would occur if the DOM received an entire data set right away.
Column
and row virtualization of the React data grid from Handsontable enables work with thousands of rows and columns of data.
Cell
Manipulation
Handsontable
provides its users with a wide choice of cell types. Predefined options include
date, time, numeric, select, checkbox, autocomplete, dropdown and password cell
types. Yet, if you want your cells to be of the type unavailable on this list,
you can use the customizable Handsontable cell type.
The
basic tasks you can perform with a React data grid from Handsontable are cell
editing, rendering and validating. The API has wide capabilities for disabling,
merging and formatting cells. The latter also supports conditional formatting.
You can change text alignment according to your preferences, add comments and
use the clipboard.
React Data
Grid from Handsontable
To
start using your first React data grid, you need to install Handsontable by
using either the “npm install” or “yarn add” command with your package manager.
Next,
you will import Handsontable’s CSS and register its modules. You can import all
of them together or select separate ones. Import the HotTable component and use
its props if you want to configure your Handsontable. Now, you are ready to
populate your data grid with data. Set a data array as the data value in
HotTable. You can choose from a number of other compatible data types including
arrays of objects and arrays of arrays. Explore the Handsontable features and
save your changes with a callback.