React Data Grid Column moving

Change the order of columns, either manually (dragging them to another location), or programmatically (using Handsontable's API methods).

In this article

• Enable the plugin
• Drag and move actions of the ManualColumnMove plugin
• Related API reference

Enable the plugin

To enable column moving, set the manualColumnMove configuration option to true.

A draggable move handle appears above the selected column header. You can click and drag it to any location in the grid.

import { HotTable } from '@handsontable/react'; import { registerAllModules } from 'handsontable/registry'; import 'handsontable/dist/handsontable.full.min.css'; // register Handsontable's modules registerAllModules(); // generate an array of arrays with dummy data const data = new Array(200) // number of rows .fill() .map((_, row) => new Array(20) // number of columns .fill() .map((_, column) => `${row}, ${column}`) ); export const ExampleComponent = () => { return ( <HotTable data={data} width="100%" height={320} rowHeaders={true} colHeaders={true} colWidths={100} manualColumnMove={true} autoWrapRow={true} autoWrapCol={true} licenseKey="non-commercial-and-evaluation" /> ); }; ReactDOM.render(<ExampleComponent />, document.getElementById('example1')); <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@14.2/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@14.2/dist/handsontable.full.min.css" /> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react@17/umd/react.production.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react-dom@17/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@handsontable/react@14.2/dist/react-handsontable.min.js"></script> <script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/14.2/scripts/fixer.js"></script> <div id="example1" class="hot "></div>

import { HotTable } from '@handsontable/react';
import { registerAllModules } from 'handsontable/registry';
import 'handsontable/dist/handsontable.full.min.css';

// register Handsontable's modules
registerAllModules();

// generate an array of arrays with dummy data
const data = new Array(200) // number of rows
  .fill()
  .map((_, row) => new Array(20) // number of columns
    .fill()
    .map((_, column) => `${row}, ${column}`)
  );

export const ExampleComponent = () => {
  return (
    <HotTable
      data={data}
      width="100%"
      height={320}
      rowHeaders={true}
      colHeaders={true}
      colWidths={100}
      manualColumnMove={true}
      autoWrapRow={true}
      autoWrapCol={true}
      licenseKey="non-commercial-and-evaluation"
    />
  );
};

Move column headers

When you move columns, the default column headers (A, B, C) stay in place.

import { HotTable } from '@handsontable/react'; import { registerAllModules } from 'handsontable/registry'; import 'handsontable/dist/handsontable.full.min.css'; // register Handsontable's modules registerAllModules(); export const ExampleComponent = () => { return ( <HotTable data={[ ['A1', 'B1', 'C1'], ['A2', 'B2', 'C2'], ['A3', 'B3', 'C3'], ]} colHeaders={true} rowHeaders={true} manualColumnMove={true} autoWrapRow={true} autoWrapCol={true} licenseKey="non-commercial-and-evaluation" /> ); }; ReactDOM.render(<ExampleComponent />, document.getElementById('example2')); <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@14.2/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@14.2/dist/handsontable.full.min.css" /> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react@17/umd/react.production.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react-dom@17/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@handsontable/react@14.2/dist/react-handsontable.min.js"></script> <script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/14.2/scripts/fixer.js"></script> <div id="example2" class="hot "></div>

import { HotTable } from '@handsontable/react';
import { registerAllModules } from 'handsontable/registry';
import 'handsontable/dist/handsontable.full.min.css';

// register Handsontable's modules
registerAllModules();

export const ExampleComponent = () => {
  return (
    <HotTable
      data={[
        ['A1', 'B1', 'C1'],
        ['A2', 'B2', 'C2'],
        ['A3', 'B3', 'C3'],
      ]}
      colHeaders={true}
      rowHeaders={true}
      manualColumnMove={true}
      autoWrapRow={true}
      autoWrapCol={true}
      licenseKey="non-commercial-and-evaluation"
    />
  );
};

But, if you configure the colHeaders option with your own column labels (e.g., One, Two, Three), your headers move along with the columns.

import { HotTable } from '@handsontable/react'; import { registerAllModules } from 'handsontable/registry'; import 'handsontable/dist/handsontable.full.min.css'; // register Handsontable's modules registerAllModules(); export const ExampleComponent = () => { return ( <HotTable data={[ ['A1', 'B1', 'C1'], ['A2', 'B2', 'C2'], ['A3', 'B3', 'C3'], ]} colHeaders={['One', 'Two', 'Three']} rowHeaders={true} manualColumnMove={true} autoWrapRow={true} autoWrapCol={true} licenseKey="non-commercial-and-evaluation" /> ); }; ReactDOM.render(<ExampleComponent />, document.getElementById('example3')); <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@14.2/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@14.2/dist/handsontable.full.min.css" /> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react@17/umd/react.production.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react-dom@17/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@handsontable/react@14.2/dist/react-handsontable.min.js"></script> <script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/14.2/scripts/fixer.js"></script> <div id="example3" class="hot "></div>

import { HotTable } from '@handsontable/react';
import { registerAllModules } from 'handsontable/registry';
import 'handsontable/dist/handsontable.full.min.css';

// register Handsontable's modules
registerAllModules();

export const ExampleComponent = () => {
  return (
    <HotTable
      data={[
        ['A1', 'B1', 'C1'],
        ['A2', 'B2', 'C2'],
        ['A3', 'B3', 'C3'],
      ]}
      colHeaders={['One', 'Two', 'Three']}
      rowHeaders={true}
      manualColumnMove={true}
      autoWrapRow={true}
      autoWrapCol={true}
      licenseKey="non-commercial-and-evaluation"
    />
  );
};

Drag and move actions of the ManualColumnMove plugin

There are significant differences between the plugin's dragColumns and moveColumns API functions. Both of them change the order of columns, but they rely on different kinds of indexes. The differences between them are shown in the diagrams below.

Both of these methods trigger the beforeColumnMove and afterColumnMove hooks, but only dragColumns passes the dropIndex argument to them.

The dragColumns method has a dropIndex parameter, which points to where the elements are being dropped.

The moveColumns method has a finalIndex parameter, which points to where the elements will be placed after the moving action - finalIndex being the index of the first moved element.

The moveColumns function cannot perform some actions, e.g., more than one element can't be moved to the last position. In this scenario, the move will be cancelled. The Plugin's isMovePossible API method and the movePossible parameters beforeColumnMove and afterColumnMove hooks help in determine such situations.

Related API reference

• Configuration options:
  • manualColumnMove
• Core methods:
  • colToProp()
  • isColumnModificationAllowed()
  • propToCol()
  • toPhysicalColumn()
  • toVisualColumn()
• Hooks:
  • afterColumnMove
  • beforeColumnMove
• Plugins:
  • ManualColumnMove