React components for efficiently rendering large, scrollable lists and tabular data
react-virtualized is a mature library that implements virtualization (windowing) techniques for React applications dealing with large datasets. Instead of rendering thousands of DOM nodes for a list with 10,000 items, it renders only the visible rows plus a small buffer, dramatically reducing memory consumption and improving scroll performance. The package provides a comprehensive suite of components including List, Grid, Table, and specialized utilities for handling complex UI patterns.
The library emerged from Facebook's need to render massive datasets in production applications. With over 1.4 million weekly downloads, it has become a battle-tested solution for data-heavy UIs like spreadsheets, log viewers, and admin dashboards. The core principle is simple: if a user can only see 20 rows at once, why render 10,000? This approach maintains 60fps scrolling performance even on datasets with millions of items.
react-virtualized offers more than basic list virtualization. It includes AutoSizer for responsive layouts, CellMeasurer for dynamic content heights, InfiniteLoader for lazy data fetching, and WindowScroller for window-based scrolling. The Table component provides Excel-like functionality with sortable columns, fixed headers, and scroll synchronization. While the package is feature-rich at ~60KB gzipped, this comes with complexity that may be overkill for simpler use cases.
The library uses a class-based component API that predates React Hooks, which can feel dated in modern codebases. It requires understanding concepts like cellRenderer functions, scroll event handling, and manual size calculations. Despite being in maintenance mode with slower updates, it remains stable and widely deployed in production applications requiring advanced virtualization features that lighter alternatives don't provide.
import React from 'react';
import { List, AutoSizer } from 'react-virtualized';
import 'react-virtualized/styles.css';
const data = Array.from({ length: 10000 }, (_, i) => ({
id: i,
name: `Item ${i}`,
email: `user${i}@example.com`,
status: i % 3 === 0 ? 'active' : 'inactive'
}));
function VirtualizedUserList() {
const rowRenderer = ({ index, key, style }) => {
const user = data[index];
return (
<div key={key} style={style} className="row">
<span className="cell">{user.name}</span>
<span className="cell">{user.email}</span>
<span className={`cell status-${user.status}`}>{user.status}</span>
</div>
);
};
return (
<div style={{ height: '600px', width: '100%' }}>
<AutoSizer>
{({ height, width }) => (
<List
width={width}
height={height}
rowCount={data.length}
rowHeight={50}
rowRenderer={rowRenderer}
overscanRowCount={10}
/>
)}
</AutoSizer>
</div>
);
}
export default VirtualizedUserList;Data Grid Applications: Building spreadsheet-like interfaces where users need to view and edit thousands of rows with multiple columns. The Table component handles column resizing, sorting, and fixed headers while maintaining smooth scrolling performance even with complex cell renderers containing formatted numbers, validation states, or inline editing controls.
Log Viewers and Monitoring Dashboards: Displaying real-time streams of log entries, events, or metrics where new items continuously append to the list. InfiniteLoader combined with List enables efficient pagination and buffer management, loading more data as users scroll while keeping memory usage constant regardless of total log size.
Image Galleries and Media Libraries: Rendering large collections of thumbnails or media items in a responsive grid layout. The Grid component with AutoSizer adapts to container dimensions, while CellMeasurer handles variable-sized content like images with different aspect ratios or tiles with dynamic text content.
E-commerce Product Catalogs: Displaying thousands of products with filtering and sorting capabilities. The virtualized approach allows instant category switches and search operations without loading entire product lists into the DOM, improving both perceived and actual performance on lower-end devices.
Admin Panels and Data Tables: Building internal tools that display database records, user lists, or transaction histories with complex filtering, sorting, and batch operations. The Table component's column configuration, custom cell renderers, and row selection patterns match typical CRUD interface requirements while handling enterprise-scale datasets.
npm install react-virtualizedpnpm add react-virtualizedbun add react-virtualized