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sojin antony
sojin antony

Posted on • Originally published at Medium on

How I Built a Lightning-Fast Excel-Like Spreadsheet in React (That Renders 100,000+ Cells!)

#excel #spreadsheets #react #reactspreadsheet

By Sojin Antony

react-spread-sheet-excel

When I started building react-spread-sheet-excel, my goal was simple: create a spreadsheet component for React that could handle massive datasets without choking the browser. Most existing solutions either lacked performance, flexibility, or essential features like formula support and export/import. So I built my own.

Here’s the story behind it — the challenges, the architecture, and how it can help you build powerful spreadsheet-like interfaces in React.

🧠 The Idea: Why Another Spreadsheet Component?

React is amazing, but rendering thousands of DOM elements can quickly become a bottleneck. I wanted a component that could:

  • Render 100,000+ input cells without lag
  • Support Excel-style formulas
  • Allow rich formatting (bold, italic, font size, etc.)
  • Enable CSV/XLSX export and import
  • Provide keyboard navigation , undo/redo, and cell merging

Most libraries I tried either didn’t scale well or lacked key features. So I decided to build one from scratch.

🔧 Key Features of react-spread-sheet-excel

🧮 Formula Support

Write formulas like =A1 + B2 * C3, and the component evaluates them dynamically.

🎨 Rich Formatting

Each cell supports:

  • Bold, italic, underline
  • Font size and color
  • Background color

📤 Export & Import

Export to .csv or .xlsx, and import files back into the component.

🧭 Keyboard Navigation

Arrow keys, tab navigation, undo/redo, and cell merging — just like Excel.

📌 Sticky Headers

Column and row headers stay visible while scrolling.

⚡ Performance

Handles 100,000+ cells with minimal lag thanks to optimized rendering.

📊 Performance Benchmarks

Cells RenderedTime Taken

10,000~0.5s

100,000~2.5s

🧪 Testing & Reliability

The package has 100% unit test coverage , ensuring stability and confidence in production environments.

🛠️ Challenges Faced

1. Formula Parsing

Building a formula engine that supports cell references and nested operations was tricky. I wrote a custom parser and evaluator to handle edge cases.

2. Performance Bottlenecks

React’s reconciliation can be expensive with thousands of inputs. I used memoization, batching updates, and optimized rendering paths.

3. Export/Import Compatibility

Ensuring compatibility with Excel and Google Sheets required careful handling of formats and encodings.

🌱 What’s Next?

Planned features:

  • Virtual scrolling
  • Collaborative editing
  • Integration with Formik/React Hook Form
  • Custom cell types (dropdowns, checkboxes, etc.)

📣 Try It Out!

🙌 Final Thoughts

If you’re building a dashboard, data entry tool, or anything that resembles Excel in React — give react-spread-sheet-excel a try. It’s lightweight, fast, and packed with features.

I’d love feedback, contributions, and ideas. Let’s build something awesome together!

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