JavaScript Data GridDisabled cells

Make specified cells read-only to protect them from unwanted changes but still allow navigation and copying of data.

Overview
Read-only grid
Read-only columns
Read-only specific cells
Non-editable columns
Non-editable specific cells
Related API reference

Overview

Disabling a cell makes the cell read-only or non-editable. Both have similar outcomes, with the following differences:

Read-only cell `readOnly: true`	Non-editable cell `editor: false`
Has an additional CSS class (`htDimmed`)	Has no additional CSS class
Copy works, paste doesn't work	Copy-paste works
Drag-to-fill doesn't work	Drag-to-fill works
Can't be changed by `populateFromArray()`	Can be changed by `populateFromArray()`

Read-only grid

You can make the entire grid read-only by setting readOnly to true as a top-level grid option.

{
    "name": "handsontable",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "",
    "dependencies": {
      "hyperformula": "^2.4.0",
      "handsontable": "15.0"
    }
  }

<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
      <title>Handsontable</title>
    </head>
  
    <body>
      <div id="exampleReadOnlyGrid" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>
    </body>
  </html>

import './styles.css'
import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

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

new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  height: 'auto',
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
  // make the entire grid read-only
  readOnly: true,
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
});

import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

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

new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  height: 'auto',
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
  // make the entire grid read-only
  readOnly: true,
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/handsontable.min.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-main.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-horizon.css" /> 
<script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/scripts/fixer.js"></script>

<div id="exampleReadOnlyGrid" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>

In many use cases, you will need to configure a certain column to be read-only. This column will be available for keyboard navigation and copying data (Ctrl/Cmd+C). Editing and pasting data will be disabled.

To make a column read-only, declare it in the columns configuration option. You can also define a special renderer function that will dim the read-only values, providing a visual cue for the user that the cells are read-only.

{
    "name": "handsontable",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "",
    "dependencies": {
      "hyperformula": "^2.4.0",
      "handsontable": "15.0"
    }
  }

<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
      <title>Handsontable</title>
    </head>
  
    <body>
      <div id="example1" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>
    </body>
  </html>

import './styles.css'
import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example1');

new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  height: 'auto',
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
  columns: [
    {
      data: 'car',
      readOnly: true,
    },
    {
      data: 'year',
    },
    {
      data: 'chassis',
    },
    {
      data: 'bumper',
    },
  ],
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
});

import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example1');

new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  height: 'auto',
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
  columns: [
    {
      data: 'car',
      readOnly: true,
    },
    {
      data: 'year',
    },
    {
      data: 'chassis',
    },
    {
      data: 'bumper',
    },
  ],
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/handsontable.min.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-main.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-horizon.css" /> 
<script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/scripts/fixer.js"></script>

<div id="example1" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>

Read-only specific cells

This example makes cells that contain the word "Nissan" read-only. It forces all cells to be processed by the cells function which will decide whether a cell's metadata should have the readOnly property set.

{
    "name": "handsontable",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "",
    "dependencies": {
      "hyperformula": "^2.4.0",
      "handsontable": "15.0"
    }
  }

<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
      <title>Handsontable</title>
    </head>
  
    <body>
      <div id="example2" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>
    </body>
  </html>

import './styles.css'
import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example2');
const hot = new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  height: 'auto',
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
});

hot.updateSettings({
  cells(row, col) {
    return hot.getData()[row][col] === 'Nissan' ? { readOnly: true } : {};
  },
});

import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example2');
const hot = new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  height: 'auto',
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
});

hot.updateSettings({
  cells(row, col) {
    return hot.getData()[row][col] === 'Nissan' ? { readOnly: true } : {};
  },
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/handsontable.min.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-main.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-horizon.css" /> 
<script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/scripts/fixer.js"></script>

<div id="example2" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>

Non-editable cells behave like any other cells apart from preventing you from manually changing their values.

Non-editable columns

In many cases, you will need to configure a certain column to be non-editable. Doing this does not change its basic behaviour, apart from editing. This means that you can still use the keyboard navigation Ctrl/Cmd+C, and Ctrl/Cmd+V functionalities, and drag-to-fill, etc.

To make a column non-editable, declare it in the columns configuration option. You can also define a special renderer function that will dim the editor value. This will provide the user with a visual cue that the cell is non-editable.

{
    "name": "handsontable",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "",
    "dependencies": {
      "hyperformula": "^2.4.0",
      "handsontable": "15.0"
    }
  }

<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
      <title>Handsontable</title>
    </head>
  
    <body>
      <div id="example3" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>
    </body>
  </html>

import './styles.css'
import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example3');

new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  height: 'auto',
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
  columns: [
    {
      data: 'car',
      editor: false,
    },
    {
      data: 'year',
      editor: 'numeric',
    },
    {
      data: 'chassis',
      editor: 'text',
    },
    {
      data: 'bumper',
      editor: 'text',
    },
  ],
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
});

import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example3');

new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  height: 'auto',
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
  columns: [
    {
      data: 'car',
      editor: false,
    },
    {
      data: 'year',
      editor: 'numeric',
    },
    {
      data: 'chassis',
      editor: 'text',
    },
    {
      data: 'bumper',
      editor: 'text',
    },
  ],
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/handsontable.min.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-main.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-horizon.css" /> 
<script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/scripts/fixer.js"></script>

<div id="example3" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>

Non-editable specific cells

The following example shows the table with non-editable cells containing the word "Nissan". This cell property is optional and you can easily set it in the Handsontable configuration.

{
    "name": "handsontable",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "",
    "dependencies": {
      "hyperformula": "^2.4.0",
      "handsontable": "15.0"
    }
  }

<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8" />
      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
      <title>Handsontable</title>
    </head>
  
    <body>
      <div id="example4" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>
    </body>
  </html>

import './styles.css'
import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example4');
const hot = new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  height: 'auto',
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
});

hot.updateSettings({
  cells(row, _col, prop) {
    return hot.getDataAtRowProp(row, prop) === 'Nissan'
      ? { editor: false }
      : { editor: 'text' };
  },
});

import Handsontable from 'handsontable';
import 'handsontable/styles/handsontable.css';
import 'handsontable/styles/ht-theme-main.css';

const container = document.querySelector('#example4');
const hot = new Handsontable(container, {
  data: [
    { car: 'Tesla', year: 2017, chassis: 'black', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Nissan', year: 2018, chassis: 'blue', bumper: 'blue' },
    { car: 'Chrysler', year: 2019, chassis: 'yellow', bumper: 'black' },
    { car: 'Volvo', year: 2020, chassis: 'white', bumper: 'gray' },
  ],
  colHeaders: ['Car', 'Year', 'Chassis color', 'Bumper color'],
  height: 'auto',
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
});

hot.updateSettings({
  cells(row, _col, prop) {
    return hot.getDataAtRowProp(row, prop) === 'Nissan'
      ? { editor: false }
      : { editor: 'text' };
  },
});

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/dist/handsontable.full.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/handsontable.min.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-main.css" /> 
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/handsontable@15.0/styles/ht-theme-horizon.css" /> 
<script src="https://handsontable.com/docs/scripts/fixer.js"></script>

<div id="example4" class="hot ht-theme-main-dark-auto "></div>

Configuration options:
- readOnly
- readOnlyCellClassName