Introduction

Building rich dashboard UIs is a common requirement in business and analytics apps. Flutter’s built-in DataTable widget and various datatables approaches let you present tabular data clearly, with support for sorting, styling, and pagination. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to construct an intermediate-level dashboard table, populate it dynamically, apply custom styling, and enable sorting and pagination.

Setting up Your DataTable

Start by adding a basic DataTable to your Flutter widget tree. The DataTable widget expects column definitions and a list of rows. Here’s a minimal example:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class DashboardTable extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return SingleChildScrollView(
      scrollDirection: Axis.horizontal,
      child: DataTable(
        columns: const [
          DataColumn(label: Text('ID')),
          DataColumn(label: Text('Name')),
          DataColumn(label: Text('Status')),
        ],
        rows: List<DataRow>.generate(
          5,
          (index) => DataRow(cells: [
            DataCell(Text('$index')),
            DataCell(Text('User $index')),
            DataCell(Text(index.isEven ? 'Active' : 'Inactive')),
          ]),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Key points:

• Wrap DataTable in a horizontal SingleChildScrollView to handle overflow.

• Use DataColumn for headers and DataRow/DataCell for content.

Populating and Styling Rows

In a real dashboard, data usually comes from a REST API or local database. Abstract your data source into a model and map it to DataRow. You can also style cells based on value:

List<DataRow> buildRows(List<User> users) {
  return users.map((user) {
    final isActive = user.status == 'Active';
    return DataRow(cells: [
      DataCell(Text(user.id.toString())),
      DataCell(Text(user.name)),
      DataCell(Container(
        padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 8, vertical: 4),
        decoration: BoxDecoration(
          color: isActive ? Colors.green[100] : Colors.red[100],
          borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(4),
        ),
        child: Text(user.status,
            style: TextStyle(
                color: isActive ? Colors.green[800] : Colors.red[800])),
      )),
    ]);
  }).toList();
}

Here you:

• Accept a List and map to DataRow.

• Use conditional styling to highlight status.

• Encapsulate styling in a Container for flexible visuals.

Adding Sorting and Pagination

For dashboards, sorting by columns and paginating large datasets are critical. Flutter provides the PaginatedDataTable widget, which extends DataTable with paging controls:

class SortedDataSource extends DataTableSource {
  final List<User> users;
  bool ascending = true;
  int sortColumnIndex = 0;

  SortedDataSource(this.users);

  void sort<T>(Comparable<T> Function(User u) getField, int columnIndex, bool asc) {
    users.sort((a, b) {
      final 

This setup:

• Defines a DataTableSource for efficient row management.

• Implements sort logic via onSort callbacks.

• Uses PaginatedDataTable for built-in pagination controls.

Integrating with State Management

To make your dashboard reactive, wire your DataTable to a state management solution (Provider, Riverpod, Bloc). For instance, fetch user data in a ChangeNotifier, then call notifyListeners(). Your DataTable will rebuild automatically when the data source updates, giving real-time interaction.

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Conclusion

You’ve built an intermediate dashboard UI using Flutter’s datatables capabilities—setting up a DataTable, populating and styling rows, adding sorting and pagination, and preparing for state integration. As your next step, consider integrating Firebase or REST APIs for dynamic data feeds.