Flutter : How to add a Header Row to a ListView

Question

Very new to Flutter. I've been able to utilize HTTP requests for data, build a ListView, edit a Row in that List and other basics. Excellent environment.

I've managed to cobble together a badly constructed Header for a ListView... but I know this isn't right. I can't get the Header text to line up properly.

I see that the Drawer Class has a DrawerHeader Class, but can't see that ListView has a ListViewHeader.

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: Text('Contacts'),
          actions: [
            IconButton(icon: Icon(Icons.add_circle),
                onPressed: getCustData
            ),
          ],
        ),
        //body:
        body: Column(
            children: [
              Row(
                  children: [
                    Expanded(child: Text('', style: TextStyle(height: 3.0, fontSize: 15.2, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,))),
                    Expanded(child: Text('First Name', style:  TextStyle(height: 3.0, fontSize: 15.2, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,))),
                    Expanded(child: Text('Last Name', style:  TextStyle(height: 3.0, fontSize: 15.2, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,))),
                    Expanded(child: Text('City', style: TextStyle(height: 3.0, fontSize: 15.2, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,))),
                    Expanded(child: Text('Customer Id', style: TextStyle(height: 3.0, fontSize: 15.2, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,))),
                    Expanded(child: Text('', style: TextStyle(height: 3.0, fontSize: 15.2, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,))),
                  ]
              ),

          Expanded(child:Container(
            child: ListView.builder(

              itemCount: data == null ? 0 : data.length,
              itemBuilder: (BuildContext context, int index) {

                return InkWell(
                  onTap: () {
                    Navigator.push(
                      context,
                      MaterialPageRoute(
                          builder: (context) => APIDetailView(data[index])),
                    );
                  },

                  child: ListTile(                //return new ListTile(
                      onTap: null,
                      leading: CircleAvatar(
                        backgroundColor: Colors.blue,
                        child: Text(data[index]["FirstName"][0]),
                      ),
                      title: Row(
                          children: <Widget>[
                            Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["FirstName"])),
                            Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["LastName"])),
                            Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["Bill_City"])),
                            Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["Customer_Id"])),
                          ]
                      )
                  ),

                );
              }, //itemBuilder

            ),
          ),
        ),
      ]
    )
);

} }

Thanks.

Solution 1

Here's how I solved this. Thanks @najeira for getting me thinking about other solutions.

In the first body Column I used the same layout for my Header that I used for the ListTile.

Because my data ListTile, in this case, includes a CircleAvatar, all the horizontal spacing is off a bit... 5 columns where the CircleAvatar is rendered... then 4 evenly spaced columns.

So... I added a ListTile to the first body Column, a CircleAvatar with a backgroundColor of transparent, and then a Row of my 4 Headings.

        ListTile(
        onTap: null,
        leading: CircleAvatar(
          backgroundColor: Colors.transparent,
        ),
        title: Row(
            children: <Widget>[
              Expanded(child: Text("First Name")),
              Expanded(child: Text("Last Name")),
              Expanded(child: Text("City")),
              Expanded(child: Text("Id")),
            ]
        ),
      ),

Solution 2

Return the header as first row by itemBuilder:

ListView.builder(
    itemCount: data == null ? 1 : data.length + 1,
    itemBuilder: (BuildContext context, int index) {
        if (index == 0) {
            // return the header
            return new Column(...);
        }
        index -= 1;

        // return row
        var row = data[index];
        return new InkWell(... with row ...);
    },
);

Solution 3

You can add Container and ListView in Column.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _MyAppState createState() => _MyAppState();
}

class _MyAppState extends State<MyApp> {
  @override
  void initState() {
    // TODO: implement initState
    super.initState();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      debugShowCheckedModeBanner: false,
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: Text("Demo App1"),
        ),
        body: Column(
          children: <Widget>[
            Container(
              height: 40.0,
              child: Row(
                children: <Widget>[
                  Container(
                      padding: EdgeInsets.all(4.0),
                      width: 100.0,
                      child: Text(
                        "Name",
                        style: TextStyle(fontSize: 18),
                      )),
                  Container(
                      padding: EdgeInsets.all(4.0),
                      width: 100.0,
                      child: Text(
                        "Age",
                        style: TextStyle(fontSize: 18),
                      )),
                ],
              ),
            ),
            Expanded(
              child: ListView.builder(
                itemCount: 100,
                itemBuilder: (BuildContext context, int index) {
                  return Row(
                    children: <Widget>[
                      Container(
                          padding: EdgeInsets.all(4.0),
                          width: 100.0,
                          child: Text(
                            "Name $index",
                            style: TextStyle(fontSize: 18),
                          )),
                      Container(
                        padding: EdgeInsets.all(4.0),
                        width: 100.0,
                        child: Text(
                          "Age $index",
                          style: TextStyle(fontSize: 18),
                        ),
                      )
                    ],
                  );
                },
              ),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Solution 4

You can add a column to the first item in the item list like this

  new ListView.builder(
    itemCount: litems.length,
    itemBuilder: (BuildContext ctxt, int index) {
      if (index == 0) {
        return Column(
          children: <Widget>[
            Header(),
            rowContent(index),
          ],
        );
      } else {
        return rowContent(index);
      }
    },
  )

Solution 5

najeira's solution is easy and simple, but you can get the same and more flexible result without touching index.

Instead of using listView, you could use CustomScrollView & SliverList which is functionally the same as listView.

   return Scaffold(
      body: CustomScrollView(
        slivers: <Widget>[
          SliverToBoxAdapter(
            // you could add any widget
            child: ListTile(
              leading: CircleAvatar(
                backgroundColor: Colors.transparent,
              ),
              title: Row(
                children: <Widget>[
                  Expanded(child: Text("First Name")),
                  Expanded(child: Text("Last Name")),
                  Expanded(child: Text("City")),
                  Expanded(child: Text("Id")),
                ],
              ),
            ),
          ),
          SliverList(
            delegate: SliverChildBuilderDelegate(
              (context, index) {
                return InkWell(
                  onTap: () {
                    Navigator.push(
                      context,
                      MaterialPageRoute(
                          builder: (context) => APIDetailView(data[index])),
                    );
                  },
                  child: ListTile(
                    //return  ListTile(
                    leading: CircleAvatar(
                      backgroundColor: Colors.blue,
                      child: Text(data[index]["FirstName"][0]),
                    ),
                    title: Row(
                      children: <Widget>[
                        Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["FirstName"])),
                        Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["LastName"])),
                        Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["Bill_City"])),
                        Expanded(child: Text(data[index]["Customer_Id"])),
                      ],
                    ),
                  ),
                );
              },
              childCount: data == null ? 0 : data.length,
            ),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

Thanks... I feel this is much cleaner than what I had. I'm still struggling to get the Header titles to line up with the ListView columns.

[najeira]

Can you make each column a fixed width?

[Admin]

I wouldn't like to. It's a mobile app... never know what screen width I'm dealing with.

[najeira]

You can get the width of the screen from MediaQuery. How about calculating the width with a percentage?

[Admin]

Nice. I'll give that a try and post back.

[Marco Altran]

This approach should be avoided as it completely ignores the first or the last element depending on the list size.

[Abbas.M]

Would you by any chance know how to make the whole thing scrollable horrizontally? Was facing your same issue with header except that my list items are WAY bigger, i have like 10 columns in the table and want to make the whole thing scrollable sideways as well

[F-1]

shows first and last elements because it uses data.length + 1 and index -= 1;, if you miss that out it won't work

[Jonas]

You could wrap the whole thing in a ListView with the scroll direction set to horizontal.

[dorsz]

I got an issue with "A RenderFlex overflowed by 69 pixels on the bottom" when using ListView and this one helped me. The trick here is to wrap ListView in Expanded widget. Didn't work when I used SingleChildScrollView, because I wanted non-scrollable header and scrollable list.

[M.M.Hasibuzzaman]

@Abbas.M wrap the title: Row(...) with ```SingleChildScrollView```` , it will scroll

[Eradicatore]

Yea, this is very simple and straight forward. I will say though, now this has me thinking of trying to make it a sticky header instead. :-)

[无夜之星辰]

Good idea. Simple and easy to use.

[Maksym Letiushov]

If list items have a fixed height I would suggest using SliverFixedExtentList instead of SliverList. Just specify itemExtent and scrolling will be better.