JavaScript Data GridGrid size

Set the width and height of the grid, using either absolute values or values relative to the parent container.

Set your grid's size
- Define the size in your CSS
- Pass the size in the configuration
What if the size is not set
Autoresizing
Manual resizing
Related articles

Set your grid's size

You need to define the grid's container as a starting point to initialize it. Usually, the div element becomes this container. This container should have defined dimensions as well as the rest of your layout. Handsontable supports relative units such as %, rem, em, vh, vw, and px.

Define the size in your CSS

Both width and height could be defined as inline styles or as a CSS class property. In this case, it's important to define what should be an overflow parent properly. Handsontable looks for the closest element with overflow: auto or overflow: hidden to use it as a scrollable container. If no such element is found, a window will be used.

TIP

Handsontable doesn't observe CSS changes for containers out of the box. If you'd like to observe it, you can define the dimensions in the configuration object or create your own observer.

Pass the size in the configuration

You can pass width and height values to Handsontable as numbers or possible CSS values for the "width"/"height" properties:

{
  width: '100px',
  height: '100px',
}

{
  width: '75%',
  height: '75%',
}

{
  width: 100,
  height: 100,
}

These dimensions will be set as inline styles in a container element, and overflow: hidden will be added automatically.

If container is a block element, then its parent has to have defined height. By default block element is 0px height, so 100% from 0px is still 0px.

Changes called in updateSettings() will re-render the grid with the new properties.

What if the size is not set

If you don't define any dimensions, Handsontable generates as many rows and columns as needed to fill the available space.

If your grid's contents don't fit in the viewport, the browser's native scrollbars are used for scrolling. For this to work properly, Handsontable's layout direction (e.g., layoutDirection: 'rtl') must be the same as your HTML document's layout direction (<html dir='rtl'>). Otherwise, horizontal scrolling doesn't work.

Autoresizing

Handsontable observes window resizing. If the window's dimensions have changed, then we check if Handsontable should resize itself too. Due to the performance issue, we use the debounce method to respond on window resize.

You can easily overwrite this behaviour by returning false in the beforeRefreshDimensions hook.

{
  beforeRefreshDimensions() { return false; }
}

Manual resizing

The Handsontable instance exposes the refreshDimensions() method, which helps you to resize grid elements properly.

hot.refreshDimensions();

You can listen for two hooks, beforeRefreshDimensions and afterRefreshDimensions.

{
    "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 class="example-controls-container">
  <div class="controls">
    <button id="triggerBtn" class="button button--primary">Expand container</button>
  </div>
</div>
<div id="exampleParent"><!-- element with dynamically added styles -->
  <div id="example" class="ht-theme-main-dark-auto"></div>
</div>
    </body>
  </html>

#exampleParent {
  height: 157px;
}

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

const triggerBtn = document.querySelector('#triggerBtn');
const example = document.querySelector('#example');
const exampleParent = document.querySelector('#exampleParent');
// generate an array of arrays with dummy data
const data = new Array(100) // number of rows
  .fill(null)
  .map((_, row) =>
    new Array(50) // number of columns
      .fill(null)
      .map((_, column) => `${row}, ${column}`)
  );

const hot = new Handsontable(example, {
  data,
  rowHeaders: true,
  colHeaders: true,
  width: '100%',
  height: '100%',
  rowHeights: 23,
  colWidths: 100,
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
});

triggerBtn.addEventListener('click', () => {
  if (triggerBtn.textContent === 'Collapse container') {
    exampleParent.style.height = ''; // reset to initial 150px;
    hot.refreshDimensions();
    triggerBtn.textContent = 'Expand container';
  } else {
    exampleParent.style.height = '410px';
    hot.refreshDimensions();
    triggerBtn.textContent = 'Collapse container';
  }
});

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

const triggerBtn = document.querySelector('#triggerBtn');
const example = document.querySelector('#example');
const exampleParent = document.querySelector('#exampleParent');
// generate an array of arrays with dummy data
const data = new Array(100) // number of rows
  .fill(null)
  .map((_, row) =>
    new Array(50) // number of columns
      .fill(null)
      .map((_, column) => `${row}, ${column}`)
  );

const hot = new Handsontable(example, {
  data,
  rowHeaders: true,
  colHeaders: true,
  width: '100%',
  height: '100%',
  rowHeights: 23,
  colWidths: 100,
  autoWrapRow: true,
  autoWrapCol: true,
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation',
});

triggerBtn.addEventListener('click', () => {
  if (triggerBtn.textContent === 'Collapse container') {
    exampleParent.style.height = ''; // reset to initial 150px;
    hot.refreshDimensions();
    triggerBtn.textContent = 'Expand container';
  } else {
    exampleParent.style.height = '410px';
    hot.refreshDimensions();
    triggerBtn.textContent = 'Collapse container';
  }
});

<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 class="example-controls-container">
  <div class="controls">
    <button id="triggerBtn" class="button button--primary">Expand container</button>
  </div>
</div>
<div id="exampleParent"><!-- element with dynamically added styles -->
  <div id="example" class="ht-theme-main-dark-auto"></div>
</div>

#exampleParent {
  height: 157px;
}

Related API reference

Configuration options:
Core methods:
- refreshDimensions()
- updateSettings()
Hooks: