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HomeBlogWeb DevelopmentReact Native FlatList - Getting Your React Native Basics Right
One of the essential components required to master your react native basics is the use of FlatList. Every programming language and framework provides you with some mechanism for iterating over a list of data, and React Native is no different.
Dynamically rendering a data collection will always be important as you go about your software development journey. FlatList is beneficial in many ways, such as rendering a list of items in a to-do list, displaying a list of contact on your mobile phone, etc. Enroll in web development for higher pay after placement Full Stack Developer course.
There are many methods for rendering items in React Native, but FlatList is one of a kind.
In this tutorial, you will understand, what FlatList is in React Native, and how to use it in your project. Stay tuned as we jump into the meat of this tutorial. If you are interested to know more about React, you may check out the React Native certification.
To simply state, FlatList is a React Native component that renders items in a scrollable view. For instance, React FlatList can be used to render a list of countries, states, or provinces that you can select from when filling a form.
What is so remarkable about FlatList is that it is scrollable and eliminates the need for you to write a loop function. You will only be required to supply a list of items in an array, and the FlatList will render it for you in the nicest of ways possible.
Let’s not talk too much; let’s understand the basic structure of a FlatList…
The FlatList structure is simple and can be achieved with one line of code only; see the code snippet below.
<FlatList data={} renderItem={} keyExtractor={item => item.id} />
Isn’t that super simple? Well, that’s for the basics. To spice it up a little, we pass in some props to it, props mean properties. Think about it this way, to make a dish taste better; you will need to add some more ingredients.
There are some primary and optional react props that you can pass into a FlatList to render some items that meet your desired result.
What are the three key props used in a FlatList? The primary props are the key properties that make your FlatList render items on the screen, and they include;
With the above properties, your FlatList is ready to render your items on the screen; let’s look at the optional properties...
When you are asked what is extra data in FlatList? You should know that extra data are optional props. And they are the non-compulsory properties available in the FlatList component for rendering a list item. Listed below are some of the extra properties available for your usage.
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How do you show data in FlatList in react-native? Below is an example of how you can quickly use FlatList in your next React Native project…
Example #1
import * as React from 'react'; import { FlatList, Text, View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native'; # A component to render individual item const Item = ({name}) => { return( <View style={styles.item}> <Text style={{color: 'black'}}>{name}</Text> </View> ); } export default function App() { # A datalist of countries to render const countries = [ { id: '1', name: 'United States', }, { id: '2', name: 'United Kingdom', }, { id: '3', name: 'Israel', }, { id: '4', name: 'India', }, { id: '5', name: 'Nigeria', }, { id: '6', name: 'Uganda', }, ]; # An item renderer const renderItem = ({item})=>( <Item name={item.name}/> ); return ( <View style={styles.container}> <FlatList data={countries} renderItem={renderItem} keyExtractor={(item) => item.id} /> </View> ); } const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { marginTop:30, padding:2, }, item: { backgroundColor: 'orange', padding: 20, marginVertical: 8, marginHorizontal: 16, borderRadius: 8, shadowColor: '#000', shadowOffset: { width: 3, height: 3 }, shadowOpacity: 0.3, shadowRadius: 8, }, });
And this is what the piece of code above looks like…
Let’s talk about the FlatList component...
<FlatList data={DataContainer} renderItem={ yourenderItem} keyExtractor={item => item.id} />
The FlatList component displays a collection of structured and often dynamic data. It displays in a scrollable view only the render elements that are currently visible on the screen, rather than all of the list's elements at once.
This component requires two primary properties for showing data on the screen: data and renderItem.
What is a render item in FlatList? The renderItem takes each Item and returns a formatted version while the data is the elements to be rendered.
To implement this component, importing FlatList from the 'react-native' library is required.
As recently discussed, props means properties. They are extra ingredients passed into a component. A component may have both required and optional props needed for utilizing it.
Let’s take a look at the props encapsulated within a FlatList component. k
Wow, that’s a ton of props that comes with the React Native FlatList. Other than props, there are also some methods you should know that come with the FlatList component.
Methods are functions that can be found in a class. Each React Native component is its class. It not only carries props but also has some methods that allow the FlatList to perform certain actions.
For example, when an event is triggered, these methods can perform certain operations. Let's take a closer look at them.
FlatList is a container for listing items that can be loaded. It has header and footer support, multiple column support, vertical/horizontal scrolling, lazy loading, etc. Here are some of FlatList's key features.
Step 1: Open your command line terminal and install expo-cli by the following command.
$ npm install -g expo-cli
Step 2: Now, create a project by the following command.
$ expo init countryList
Step 3: Now go into your project folder, i.e., countryList
$ cd countryList
Step 4: Import FlatList into your screen or component.
import { FlatList} from "react-native";
Step 5: Create an Item component
const Item = ({name}) => { return( <View style={styles.item}> <Text style={{color: 'black'}}>{name}</Text> </View> ); }
Step 6: Supply your data list
const countries = [ { id: '1', name: 'country name', }, ..., ..., ];
Step 7: Create a renderItem method.
const renderItem = ({item})=>( <Item name={item.name}/> );
Step 8: Use FlatList in the project.
return ( <View style={styles.container}> <FlatList data={countries} renderItem={renderItem} keyExtractor={(item) => item.id} /> </View> );
That’s how simple it is; the props and methods discussed above can be passed along with the FlatList component.
How do you make a FlatList horizontal? A horizontal FlatList can easily be achieved by passing the horizontal prop inside the FlatList React Native component, as seen in the image below.
Example #2
<FlatList data={countries} renderItem={renderItem} keyExtractor={(item) => item.id} horizontal />
How do you optimize FlatList? As seen in the following example, you can easily optimize a FlatList by breaking it down into components.
Example #3
In this example, we will be spicing up our countries list by adding a third parameter to our datatype; here is what the process looks like...
const countries = [ { id: '1', name: 'country name', isSelected: true, }, ..., ..., ];
Modify the Item component code to look like this…
const Item = ({ name, isSelected }) => { return ( <View style={[ styles.item, { borderColor: isSelected ? 'red' : 'black' }, { borderWidth: isSelected ? 2 : 0 }, ]}> <Text style={{ fontWeight: 500, color: 'black', }}> {name} </Text> </View> ); };
Include the renderItem method as before...
const renderItem = ({ item }) => ( <Item name={item.name} isSelected={item.isSelected} /> ); Display the FlatList React Native component as before… return ( <View style={styles.container}> <FlatList data={countries} renderItem={renderItem} keyExtractor={(item) => item.id} /> </View> );
Update the stylesheet like this…
const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { marginTop: 30, padding: 2, }, item: { padding: 20, marginVertical: 8, marginHorizontal: 16, borderRadius: 8, shadowColor: '#000', shadowOffset: { width: 3, height: 3 }, shadowOpacity: 0.3, shadowRadius: 8, }, });
The above codes should produce this result, as seen below…
With the above example, you can specify which country is to be selected by the boolean key supplied in the countries data list.
You can do a lot more with FlatList; you can try doing some new examples, such as adding a FlatList loading indicator or some animation to the FlatList component.
For next steps, check out our blog posts about react js vs react native.
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It has been a blast so far in this tutorial, and hopefully, you got some valuable insights on how to use FlatLists in your next React Native project.
If you want to crush react and everything about React Native, check out the KnowledgeHut’s React Native Certification. That will be all for now, till next time, all the best!
The Key props used in Flatlist are data, renderItem, and keyExtractor.
Extra data are optional props. And they are the non-compulsory properties available in the FlatList component for rendering a list item.
You show data in FlatList using the react-native FlatList component. You reference it using
<FlatList data={} renderItem={} keyExtractor={item => item.id} /> .
A renderItem is a FlatList primary prop that takes each Item supplied by the data prop and returns a formatted version of it.
A FlatList can easily be made horizontal by passing horizontal as a prop within the component tag. For instance,
<FlatList horizontal />.
You can easily optimize a FlatList by splitting its codes into smaller components and functions.
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