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# Cell function

Table of contents

# Overview

With every cell in the Handsontable there are 3 associated functions:

Each of those functions are responsible for a different cell behavior. You can define them separately or use a cell type to define all three at once.

# Renderer

Handsontable does not display the values stored in the data source directly. Instead, every time a value from data source needs to be displayed in a table cell, it is passed to the cell renderer function, together with the table cell object of type HTMLTableCellElement (DOM node), along with other useful information.

Renderer is expected to format the passed value and place it as a content of the cell object. Renderer can also alter the cell class list, i.e. it can add a htInvalid class to let the user know, that the displayed value is invalid.

# Editor

Cell editors are the most complex cell functions. We have prepared a separate page custom cell editor explaining how cell edit works and how to write your own cell editor.

# Validator

Cell validator can be either a function or a regular expression. A cell is considered valid, when the validator function calls a callback (passed as one of the validator arguments) with true or the validation regex test() (opens new window) method returns true. Because the validity of a value is determined only by the argument that is passed to callback, validator function can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Contrary to renderer and editor functions, the validator function doesn't have to be defined for each cell. If the validator function is not defined, then a cell value is always valid.

# Cell type

Manually defining those functions for cells or columns would be tedious, so to simplify the configuration, Handsontable introduced cell types.

# Cell functions getters

If, for some reason, you have to get the renderer, editor or validator function of specific cell you can use standard getCellMeta() method to get all properties of particular cell and then refer to cell functions like so:

const container = document.querySelector('#container');

// get cell properties for cell [0, 0]
const cellProperties = hot.getCellMeta(0, 0);

cellProperties.renderer; // get cell renderer
cellProperties.editor; // get cell editor
cellProperties.validator; // get cell validator

However, you have to remember that getCellMeta() return cell properties "as they are", which means that if you use cell type to set cell functions, instead of defining functions directly those cell functions will be undefined:

const container = document.querySelector('#container');

const hot = new Handsontable(container, {
  columns: [{
    type: 'numeric'
  }]
});

// get cell properties for cell [0, 0]
const cellProperties = hot.getCellMeta(0, 0);

cellProperties.renderer; // undefined
cellProperties.editor; // undefined
cellProperties.validator; // undefined
cellProperties.type; // "numeric"

To get the actual cell function use appropriate cell function getter:

Those functions will always return an appropriate value, regardless of whether cell functions have been defined directly or using a cell type.

← Cell renderer →