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Compose DataTable

A highly customizable, feature-rich DataTable component for Compose Desktop, built entirely on Foundation APIs — no Material dependency required.

Maven Central License

DataTable(
    items = people,
    headers = headers,
    itemKey = { it.id },
)

Get started API reference

What it does

  • Columns that behave

    Fixed or weighted widths, per-column alignment, ellipsis, visibility toggles, custom cell and header composables, drag-to-resize, drag-to-reorder, left-pinned frozen columns, and grouped headers nested to any depth.

  • A column menu, and a layout users can keep

    showColumnMenuButton gives the header a menu for showing and hiding columns, the way JavaFX's table menu button does, and reorderableColumns lets a user drag one to a new position — groups move as blocks. What the user picks — with widths, order, sort, and filters — comes out of captureLayout() as one snapshot to store per user, and applyLayout puts the grid back as they left it.

  • A filter row that pairs with your query

    Mark a column filterable and it gets a field under its header; give it a filterPredicate for a range or an exact match, or a filterContent for a dropdown. Filtering is a Map<String, String> you can hoist, save, or turn into a WHERE clause with manualFiltering.

  • Formatted for reading, raw underneath

    A format lambda per column — money, percentages, dates, booleans, or your own — decides what a cell reads, while the value stays raw for sorting, editing, and validation. Copy takes the formatted text, the way a spreadsheet does.

  • Sorting that scales

    Single-column, multi-column with Ctrl +click, custom comparators — or hand sorting off to your database with manualSorting and translate header clicks into ORDER BY.

  • Selection by key, not by identity

    Selection and expansion are tracked by the key from itemKey, so they survive item instances being replaced and never depend on your row type implementing equals/hashCode.

  • Built for large data

    Rows are virtualized, and a uniform rowHeight gets the columns virtualized too. Plus client-side or server-side pagination, and manualPagination so the table holds one page while your query holds the rest.

  • Keyboard driven

    Arrow keys, Home/End, Enter, Space. Focus is tracked by key, so it follows its row across a re-sort instead of sticking to a position. Turn on cellNavigation and the same holds a cell cursor across two axes.

  • Editing in place

    Mark a column editable and cells edit on Enter, F2, a double-click, or just by typing. Per-column validation, an editor that opens on the raw value behind a formatted display, and editorContent for pickers. The table reports the edit; your model stays the only copy.

  • Select a block, copy it out

    Shift +arrows or Shift +click extend a rectangle of cells; Ctrl+C puts it on the clipboard as tab-separated text. Intercept it with onCopy and you get the rows and columns back as your own types — the seam an exporter hangs off.

  • Themeable without a theme

    Every color and text style is a parameter. Three densities. Works with Material, or with nothing at all.

Requirements
Kotlin 2.2+
Compose Multiplatform 1.11.1
JVM 11+

The artifact is compiled to Java 11 bytecode, so it runs on any JVM from 11 up. It is built and tested against Compose Multiplatform 1.11.1, which it exposes as an api dependency — Gradle will resolve your Compose version up to that if you are on an older one. Kotlin metadata is emitted at language level 2.2, so a 2.2 compiler can read it.

Desktop only, for now

The library targets Compose Desktop. It uses AWT cursors for the column-resize handle, so it is not yet a Compose Multiplatform artifact.

Try it

The repository ships a gallery app that exercises every feature — nested headers, server-side paging, all three densities, keyboard navigation, cell editing, range selection and copy, loading and empty states:

./gradlew :composeApp:run

Each release also carries prebuilt demo packages — .deb and .tar.gz for Linux, .msi for Windows, .dmg for macOS — on the Releases page.

What it does not do

The honest boundary of the component as it stands, so you can rule it in or out before building on it:

  • No paste. A block of cells can be selected and copied, but not filled from the clipboard, so a round-trip through a spreadsheet is one-way.
  • One block at a time. Cell selection is a single rectangle — there is no Ctrl +click to build up several disjoint blocks.
  • No row-level commit. Editing commits one cell at a time — there is no editing row that validates across columns or rolls back as a unit, and no undo stack.
  • No export. CSV, Excel, and PDF are the caller's job — though onCopy hands you the selected rows and columns as a starting point.
  • Column reordering is pointer-only. reorderableColumns lets a user drag a header to a new position, but there is no keyboard equivalent — moveColumn is the seam for UI of your own. See Column Layout.
  • Filtering is one query per column, ANDed. The filter row holds a string per column and every column has to match. There is no OR across columns, no filter that spans two of them, and no Excel-style checklist of the values that occur — a custom filterContent is where those get built.
  • No tree tables. groupBy is one level deep, flat, and always expanded — see Grouping.
  • No accessibility semantics. Rows and cells carry no roles or content descriptions, so screen reader support is whatever Compose infers from the text.
  • Horizontal virtualization covers the body only. Off-screen cells are culled in the data rows; the header and filter rows always compose every column. It switches itself off under rowHeight = null, where a row's height depends on cells that may not be composed. See Columns.
  • Frozen columns pin left only, and rows cannot be frozen at all.

License

Copyright 2025 Wanjala Stephen

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.