Material React Table

Here are some best practices to follow when using Material React Table. We'll cover Type-Safety (even if you are not using TypeScript) and how to best create re-usable MRT components.

Run this command in your terminal every few weeks to make sure you are using the latest version of Material React Table and MUI

$ npx npm-check-updates -u material-react-table @mui/material @mui/x-date-pickers @mui/icons-material @emotion/react @emotion/styled

TanStack Table itself is written in TypeScript, and Material React Table builds on top of its great type definitions for a best-in-class TypeScript experience.

If, however, you cannot use TypeScript in your project for some reason, checkout down below for how to use JSDoc instead of TypeScript to get the same type hints.

No, TypeScript is not required to use Material React Table. You can just use JavaScript and everything will work just fine, but you will be missing out on a lot of great type hints and type safety that can help you build your app faster and with less bugs.

There are a couple of ways to still get type hints without TypeScript with the createMRTColumnHelper utility function or by using JSDoc, so you can still get some of the benefits of type safety without TypeScript.

Material React Table makes use of generics to make working with your specific row data structures easier. You will see that most of the MRT_* types that you can use accept a TData generic.

Let's say that the data in your table is an array of users that looks like this:

const data: User[] = [
  { id: 1, name: 'John', age: 23 },
  { id: 2, name: 'Alice', age: 17 },
  { id: 3, name: 'Bob', age: 32 },
];

Then your TData type can be defined as:

export type User = {
  id: number;
  name: string;
  age: number;
};

You will often pass this TData type as a generic to the MRT_* types that you use so that you can get type hints for your specific data structure.

Material React Table provides a couple of ways to define your columns with type safety. You can either simply use the MRT_ColumnDef type or use the new createMRTColumnHelper utility function.

The most straightforward way to define your columns with type-safety is to just type your columns as Array<MRT_ColumnDef<TData>>.

import {
  MaterialReactTable,
  useMaterialReactTable,
  type MRT_ColumnDef, // <--- import MRT_ColumnDef
} from 'material-react-table';
import { type User } from './types'; // <--- import your TData type from wherever you defined it

// define your columns, pass User as a generic to MRT_ColumnDef
const columns: Array<MRT_ColumnDef<User>> = [
  {
    accessorKey: 'id', //you should get type hints for all of your keys if you defined your TData type correctly
    header: 'ID',
    enableSorting: false, //you should get type hints for all possible column options that you can define here
  },
  {
    accessorKey: 'name',
    header: 'Name',
  },
  {
    accessorFn: (originalRow) => Number(originalRow.age), //you should also get type hints for your accessorFn
    header: 'Age',
    Cell: ({ cell }) => <span>{cell.getValue<number>()}</span>, //cell.getValue() will be typed as `unknown` by default, but you can pass a generic to get the correct type
    //see the createMRTColumnHelper example below for a better way to get type safety with cell.getValue()
  },
];

New in V3 (After many requests)

Alternatively you can use the createMRTColumnHelper utility function to define your columns. This works the same way as the TanStack createColumnHelper.

Additional TValue type-safety is provided by using this utility. That means that when you call cell.getValue() in either a custom Cell render, or in any of the mui*Props, you will get the correct type for the data in that column instead of unknown.

import {
  MaterialReactTable,
  useMaterialReactTable,
  createMRTColumnHelper, // <--- import createMRTColumnHelper
} from 'material-react-table';
import { type User } from './types'; // <--- import your TData type from wherever you defined it (if using TS)

const columnHelper = createMRTColumnHelper<User>(); // <--- pass your TData type as a generic to createMRTColumnHelper (if using TS)

//columns will be inferred as Array<MRT_ColumnDef<User>>
const columns = [
  //accessorKey as first argument, rest of column options as second argument
  columnHelper.accessor('name', {
    header: 'Last Name',
  }),
  //accessorFn as first argument, rest of column options as second argument
  columnHelper.accessor((row) => Number(row.age), {
    id; 'age', //id required for accessorFn
    header: 'Age',
    filterVariant: 'range-slider', //you should get type hints for all possible column options that you can define here
    Cell: ({ cell }) => <span>{cell.getValue()}</span>, //cell.getValue() will be typed as number instead of unknown
  }),
  //display column (no accessor needed)
  columnHelper.display({
    header: 'Contact',
    Cell: ({ row }) => (
      <Button onClick={() => sendEmail(row.original.email)}>Send Email</Button>
    ),
  }),
];

If you are in a situation where you are not able to install TypeScript in your project, you can technically do the same thing as up above in JavaScript using JSDoc.

import {
  MaterialReactTable,
  useMaterialReactTable,
} from 'material-react-table';

//define TData type with JSDoc
/**
 * @typedef {Object} User
 * @property {number} id
 * @property {string} name
 * @property {number} age
 */

//import MRT_ColumnDef type with JSDoc
/**
 * @type {import('material-react-table').MRT_ColumnDef<User>[]}
 */
const columns = [
  {
    accessorKey: 'id', //you should get type hints for all of your keys if you defined your TData type correctly
    header: 'ID',
    enableSorting: false, //you should get type hints for all possible column options that you can define here
  },
  {
    accessorKey: 'name',
    header: 'Name',
  },
  {
    accessorFn: (originalRow) => Number(originalRow.age), //you should also get type hints for your accessorFn
    header: 'Age',
  },
];

If you are going to have multiple tables in your app, chances are that you will want to make a re-usable component built on top of Material React Table. This is a good idea and good practice, but here are a few suggestions to maintain type safety with some TypeScript generics.

In my opinion, instead of creating a re-usable component, it is instead actually best to define your default options and share them between all of your tables.

In this example, we are simply creating a factory function that creates all of the default options that you want all of your tables to start with.

import { type MRT_RowData, type MRT_TableOptions } from 'material-react-table';

//define re-useable default table options for all tables in your app
export const getDefaultMRTOptions = <TData extends MRT_RowData>(): Partial<
  MRT_TableOptions<TData>
> => ({
  //list all of your default table options here
  enableGlobalFilter: false,
  enableRowPinning: true,
  initialState: { showColumnFilters: true },
  manualFiltering: true,
  manualPagination: true,
  manualSorting: true,
  muiTableHeadCellProps: {
    sx: { fontSize: '1.1rem' },
  },
  paginationDisplayMode: 'pages',
  //etc...
  defaultColumn: {
    //you can even list default column options here
  },
});

Then you can use these options in every new table that you create:

import {
  MaterialReactTable,
  useMaterialReactTable,
  type MRT_ColumnDef,
} from 'material-react-table';
import { getDefaultMRTOptions } from './utils'; //your default options

interface User {
  id: number;
  name: string;
  age: number;
}

const defaultMRTOptions = getDefaultMRTOptions<User>(); //get your default options

export const OneOfYourTableComponents = () => {
  const columns: MRT_ColumnDef<User>[] = [
    //...
  ];

  const { data } = useQuery({
    //...
  });

  const table = useMaterialReactTable({
    ...defaultMRTOptions, //spread your default options
    columns,
    data,
    enableGlobalFilter: true, //override default options
    initialState: {
      ...defaultMRTOptions.initialState, //spread default initial state
      showColumnFilters: false, //override default initial state for just this table
    },
    //...
  });

  //you will have access to the entire table instance where you need it
  console.log(table.getState());

  return <MaterialReactTable table={table} />;
};

Doing it this way, you maintain 100% control of your table instance and any state that you are managing in each table component.

I believe this is by far the best way to work with Material React Table in your application code, and how I personally use it in my own apps.

If you still want to just create a re-usable MRT component instead, you can do that too, of course. Here is a type-safe way to do that:

import {
  MaterialReactTable,
  useMaterialReactTable,
  type MRT_ColumnDef,
  type MRT_RowData, //default shape of TData (Record<string, any>)
  type MRT_TableOptions,
} from 'material-react-table';

interface Props<TData extends MRT_RowData> extends MRT_TableOptions<TData> {
  columns: MRT_ColumnDef<TData>[];
  data: TData[];
}

export const CustomMRTTable = <TData extends MRT_RowData>({
  columns,
  data,
  ...rest
}: Props<TData>) => {
  const table = useMaterialReactTable({
    columns,
    data,
    //your custom table options...
    ...rest, //accept props to override default table options
  });

  return <MaterialReactTable table={table} />;
};

By using the TData generic correctly, you can maintain type-safety in your re-usable component that will adapt to different types of data you will have throughout your application.

Though, be aware that the weakness of this approach is that it will be more annoying to get access to the table instance or read table state where you need it.

When re-using your MRT table component, it will just look something like this:

import { CustomMRTTable } from './CustomMRTTable';

const columns: MRT_ColumnDef<User>[] = [
  //...
];

export const YourComponent = () => {
  //no easy access to the table instance or table state here unless you manage all of the state in this component
  const [pagination, setPagination] = useState<MRT_PaginationState>({
    pageIndex: 0,
    pageSize: 10,
  });
  const [sorting, setSorting] = useState<MRT_SortingState[]>([]);
  //etc...

  const { data } = useQuery({
    //...
  });

  return (
    <CustomMRTTable
      columns={columns}
      data={data}
      enableRowPinning
      //manage states to get access to them
      onPaginationChange={setPagination}
      onSortingChange={setSorting}
      //etc...
      state={{
        pagination,
        sorting,
        //etc...
      }}
    />
  );
};

Material React Table (though really TanStack Table) can be a lot easier to debug than other data grid libraries. This is because you are often in charge of the state that you care about, and the entire table instance is available to you in your own scope if you are using the useMaterialReactTable hook. There are also some advanced TanStack Table Dev Tools that you can optionally install.

When in doubt, console log it! There are a lot of things you can easily console log. Here are some examples:

const table = useMaterialReactTable({
  columns,
  data,
  //** */
});

console.log(table.getState());

const table = useMaterialReactTable({
  columns,
  data,
  //** */
});

console.log(table.getRowModel().rows);